We are happy to announce that the Timber Processing and Energy Expo will be held September 28-30, 2016 at the Portland Exposition Center in Portland, Ore. This will mark the third biennial TP&EE to be produced by Hatton-Brown Expositions, an affiliate of Hatton-Brown Publishers, Inc. and Timber Processing and Panel World magazines.

The 2014 event was a major success, featuring 170 exhibitors who displayed their equipment and technologies to 1,700 industry producer personnel, representing 140 wood products companies and hundreds of lumber, veneer/plywood and engineered wood products mill operations. Non-exhibitor attendance increased by 70% compared to the 2012 event. The event also continues to attract an international audience, with 22 countries represented. In addition, 1,000 exhibitor personnel were on hand.

The 2014 TP&EE was held as housing and wood products markets rebounded from the devastating declines of previous years. Wood products companies and exhibitors conducted “real” business on the show floor. More of the same is expected in 2016 as market forecasts remain positive for the future, meaning wood products producers will continue to enhance their operations with capital expenditure on new machinery and systems.

The 2014 TP&EE also included two workshop days that featured presentations on a range of lumber, plywood and engineered wood products technologies. Many exhibitor companies took advantage of the opportunity to participate in these workshops through presentations on their latest systems. More than 200 people attended the workshops.

We look forward to your participation in the 2016 Timber Processing & Energy Expo.

Plywood Workshop Presentations 2016

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

9:30 a.m.—Modern Veneer Dryers and Profit

Alan Knokey, Vice President, USNR

This discussion focuses on drying system features—feeder, dryer, unloader, moisture detector, scanning and stacking systems, and highlights the importance of each function and its individual contribution to the drying system, with emphasis on productivity, versatility and the absolute requirement for uniform veneer drying.

10:00 a.m. —Making the Most of Your Dry Veneer Upgrade Improvements to Increase Profits

Martin Murphy, Senior Vice President, Raute North America

Veneer handling is a series of linked processes. Each one can make or break the profitability factor further on in the manufacturing of LVL and plywood. Once the veneer is peeled, the drying process can be set up to optimize the veneer quality in both visual and strength grades. Raute has upgrades that can be installed to improve your dry veneer quality to improve your bottom line.

10:30 a.m.—New Technology for Veneer Lathe Systems

Tim Fisher, Veneer/Panel Business Development Manager, USNR

This discussion focuses on new veneer lathe system technology featuring electric lathe carriages, scanning and control systems, and highlights the opportunity provided by each new technology application and its contribution to overall lathe system performance, with emphasis on productivity, fiber recovery and the requirement to produce uniform high quality veneer

11:00 a.m.—New Developments in Veneer Peeling Lines—Automated Green End

Anna McCann, President, Merritt Machinery

One of the most technologically advanced peeling line in the world is now running at Swanson Group’s new plywood plant in Springfield Ore. Learn how Japanese manufacturer Meinan Machinery Works’ automated state-of-the-art lathe line positively impacts raw material, product quality, manpower, glue and energy costs. Meinan’s equipment and production methods can be found in panel and engineered lumber plants throughout the world, producing veneer, plywood and LVL from various raw materials with significant process and efficiency improvements. The new Swanson plywood plant is the first in the world with in-line green veneer composing to provide a completely automated green end solution.

11:30 a.m.—Outlook for North American Plywood and New Plywood Mill

Dr. Richard Baldwin, President, Winston Plywood & Veneer

The presentation offers recommendations to revitalize the industry and mills in particular, including lathe upgrades, improving dryer performance, creatively marketing plywood’s unique characteristics, and customizing best leadership practices. And the presentation literally brings these points home to he mill floor during a discussion on Winston Plywood & Veneer’s new mill in Winston, Miss.

1:30 p.m.—If the Sky Is the Limit for CLT’s, What Will It Take to Get Us There?

Valerie Johnson, President, D.R. Johnson Wood Innovations

At the nearly breath-taking pace that the interest in CLT’s is moving, it appears there will tremendous upside growth. Or will there? What has it taken to get to this point? And what opportunities as well as challenges face us to build “to the sky”?

2:00 p.m.—The State of the Global CLT Industry—A Survey in Progress

Dr. Lech Muszynski, Associate Professor, Department of Wood Science and Engineering, Oregon State University (co-authors, Eric Hansen, Jasmin Rainer, Julian Geisel, B.M.S.R. Fernando, Gabriel Schwarzmann)

Cross-laminated timber, or CLT, is a massive structural composite panel product usually consisting of 3 to 9 layers of dimensional timber (lamellas) arranged perpendicular to each other, much like layers of veneer in plywood, and can be used as prefabricated wall, floor and roofing elements in residential, public and commercial structures. This is not merely a new engineered composite panel product, but an entirely new building technology revolutionizing the use of timber in construction. The CLT manufacturing process and the technology of erecting prefabricated houses based on this product has been developed in Europe over the last 20 years despite lack of the product standard. The output capacity of the industry worldwide has been growing exponentially. The organic development of the industry resulted in a surprising diversity in the manufacturing processes, products and market strategies. This presentation will include preliminary results from an industry survey being currently conducted by Oregon State University and a brief overview of the profiles of 24 CLT manufacturing plants toured between 2012-16.

2:30 p.m.—Mass Timber Construction in the Forest Industry Infrastructure Thomas Robinson, Principal and Founder, LEVER Architecture

Mass timber construction can be a catalyst for connecting urban expansion to the economic well being of Northwestern rural communities. Completed mass timber projects in Europe, Canada and Australia demonstrate the feasibility of the technology and the environmental benefits have been well documented. The challenge faced by the design and construction community in the United States is translating this system of building into realizable projects locally. In addition to the regulatory hurdles and required performance testing, we need to rethink the way we design mass timber buildings that connects forest management, sourcing and local manufacturing. This presentation shares lessons learned in the design and realization of two new cross-laminated timber (CLT) projects in Portland, Ore.—Albina Yard, the first domestically produced CLT office building in the United States currently under construction in North Portland; and Framework, a 12-story CLT high-rise project which was awarded a $1.5 m grant in the U.S. Tall Wood Building Competition sponsored by the USDA.

3:00 p.m.—Unique New Press Design for Manufacturing CLT Panels

Sam Pope, Capital Sales Manager, Western North America, USNR

USNR’s new modular press for the manufacture of cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels features key design elements that make it a great choice for those entering the emerging North American CLT market. According to its proponents, CLT is not merely a new engineered composite panel product, it’s an entirely new building technology that is revolutionizing the use of timber in construction and dramatically cutting the overall time for construction projects. Learn more about the innovations that make USNR’s new window-frame style CLT press extremely robust, environmentally-friendly, and cost-effective.

3:30 p.m.—Inspired by Smart Technology—Second Wave of CLT Investment on the Way in Europe

Dominik Wolfschuetz, German Woodworking Machinery Manufacturers Association (VDMA); Gerhard Binder, Projecting and Sales, Minda

After three years of relatively low level of investments in CLT capacities, new plants are being built in Europe again. Newly adopted building regulations and building contractors and project developers with a solid knowledge base of how to use CLT push the business. A recently announced buildup of a production site by a property investor shows that the market for CLT is in motion. Innovative process equipment, like the largest ever built CLT press, is the answer to the expanding market.

Lumber Manufacturing Workshop Presentations 2016

Thursday, September 29

Room 1

9:30 a.m.—Automation in the Filing Room

Justin Williams, CEO, Williams and White

This presentation will briefly explore the reasons automation is becoming more and more critical in saw filing, as well as some recent automated technologies in the industry. It will also include an overview of the new RoboSharp AX10L2 Sharpening Center and the benefits it brings to the industry.

10:00 a.m.—Automated Leveling and Tensioning for Saw Plate

Matt Tulleners, Territory Manager/Intermountain Region, Simonds International

This discussion will cover the technology and improvements in automatic plate leveling and tensioning of saw blades. This automation of the tedious task of leveling steel plate thru cold forming versus hammering or impact load to plate is now a proven and accepted improvement to this process and now the same success is being shown on tensioning technology. This discussion will introduce some of the current technology utilized in sawmilling today.

10:30 a.m.—Computerized Vibration Analysis of Circular Saw Tension

Jason Allen, V.P. of Sales, Burton Saw and Supply

When measuring the vibration frequency of a circle saw, we are providing another tool for the saw filer to create the proper amount of tension for their production and saw needs. In addition to a circle saw being level and flat, the vibration analysis of circle saw tension can prove to be a useful tool by providing data that will help you improve saw filing deviation, training for your new saw filers, and help eliminate variability from shift to shift.

11:00 a.m.—Saw Guide Maintenance for Dummies

Mike West, Head Filer, Cascade Hardwood

This presentation is geared towards saw filers but has some very good information for managers and maintenance personnel to take back to their mills. It emphasizes taking care of the guides at every level whether it is in the filing room or on the mill floor. It explains why a quick saw change isn’t always a good saw change and addresses the importance of taking care when handling guides.

11:30 a.m.—New RFID Chip Technology Implemented in Saws

Sylvain St.-Hilaire, President, BGR Saws

New RFID chip technology implemented in the saws provides an extremely efficient saw management system, allowing the tracking of run time, the full history of every saw blade including each repair work (leveling tensioning, retipping, sharpening, etc.). RFID chips also have the capability of storing all the geometrical information about the saw they are implemented in. The chip is 0.300 in. in diameter and 0.078 in. thick. It’s embedded in the saw near the eye, can be hammered and can deal with a temperature of 200°. An excellent upside of this system is that it allows the head filer and his team to determine the optimal moment to discard a saw since they are now able through this technology to track the history of all their saws (for example, how many times blade damage on tension can be fixed before it will no longer be a productive saw). The technology can also combine with a powerful QC system call S.A.M. (Saw Automatic Measurement). The next step of this total system is the capability to transfer the geometrical information to the filing room equipment for automatic setup by reading the chip information. These machines will be available early in 2017.

Room II

9:30 a.m.—Use Scanning to Turn Your Edger into a Lean, Mean, Money-Making Machine

Joey Nelson, President, JoeScan

Lineal-scanned edgers are a proven tool for mills that want to slash their miscuts, resulting in increased recovery and profits. Join Joey Nelson, president of JoeScan, for a discussion about lineal edgers: how they work, benefits, and modern trends in lineal edging. Even if you already have a lineal-scanned edger, it’s worth taking another look to ensure it’s operating optimally. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from one of the industry’s leading scanning experts.

10:00 a.m.—The Latest Profiling Technologies

Ron McGehee, R&D New Product Development, Bid Group

Recent year technological developments in the sawing industry have enhanced mill profitability and productivity. This can sometimes shift operational challenges elsewhere in the line. For instance, increased throughput generates a lot more pieces for the edger to process, which can potentially create a bottleneck at that very location. Profiling systems turn out to be really interesting and very popular solutions with mill owners who wish to relieve their edgers. This is something Ron McGehee understood a long time ago when he developed his first profiling system which could improve existing sawing operations. See how the technology has evolved and learn more about McGehee’s latest development.

10:30 a.m.—Latest Technologies at the Sawmill & Planer Mill

Yvan Rainville, Vice-President Sales & Marketing, Autolog

This presentation examines how Autolog uses 3D data to identify vision type defects such as splits and shakes and obvious unsound wood at the transverse trimmer optimizer, and tracheid data to detect knots (including low contrast knots) and unsound wood at the planer mill.

11:00 a.m.—GradeScan-Built for the Future

Ellen Nelson, CFO, Ryan Shear, Software Engineer, Lucidyne Technologies

A discussion of the latest improvements in image processing and optimization in addition to discussing how system expandability and sensor technology is designed for the future.

11:30 a.m.—New Scanning and End Dogging Technology

Dr. Michel Loyet, CEO, Finega Group (MEM)

Introduction of new 360 degree rotary log scanning technology and 3D end-dogging technology, called MASTERTWIN, for greater recovery, productivity and flexibility. Prior to the sawing line, each individual log is scanned by a 360° rotary full shape scanner, and a powerful real time optimizer calculates in a few seconds the best sawing axis in the 3D space and the cutting pattern taking into account the dollar value. A new 3D infeed table orients automatically each individual log to the optimal rotary angle and to the best horizontal and vertical skewing before dogging and sawing. The “All in One” MASTERTWIN combines a twin band saw or a circular saw, a chipper canter and a sides boards profiler. It includes an automatic log quarter turner system on the fly and a bed resawing function. No operator is needed for controlling the machine; extra automatic rip saw or multirip machines can be combined for building a full automatic and optimized softwood or hardwood sawmill.

Room I

1:30 p.m.—Automatic Log Scaling and Processing

Norvin Laudon, Chief Technology Officer, Springer Microtec

This presentation focuses on the use of certified scanners to reduce manual scaling of logs while receiving more accurate log measurements, with additional focus on high speed log processing equipment.

2:00 p.m.—Big Data and The Connected Mill

Rory Armes, CEO, Bill Harrison, Director of Production, Cumul8 Technologies

The evolution of mill production has drastically changed. Today the new sawmill is collecting vast amounts of big data from every sensor, machine, PLC board along with all the optimization variables. Being able to use all that data, in real time, to make better decisions and solve issues quickly, is key. This presentation discusses how pulling all that raw data into a central location, like the cloud, with expert visualizations designed for real users from frontline to managers, creates a competitive advantage for any mill.

2:30 p.m.—Innovative Ripsawing Technology, Scanning & Optimizing

Dr. Stefan Möhringer, Managing Director, Simon Möhringer Engineering GmbH

Whatever your optimization strategy is, in order to maximize your profits there are numerous technology choices to select an idearipsawing/edging solution for unique requirements. This session will offer an overview of various flexible sawing solutions with different kinds of board scanning and optimizing techniques, suitable for wet and dry mills with the intent to increase efficiency and product yield. The goal is to provide innovative ideas and practical aspects to decision makers and end users in the timber industry.

3:00 p.m.—Pellets: How to Get More from Your Wood Chips and Sawdust Forcus Martinez, Sales Manager, Prodesa

Under the current circumstances of the industry, it’s not uncommon for a sawmill to see that the number of customers wanting its wood chips or sawdust has been reduced or that the market price for its residuals has dropped. Wood pellets are an excellent option to increase your profitability from these byproducts, and at the same time participate in an industry that has had a lot of growth in past years with a great future projected. This presentation provides the current situation and forecast of the wood pellet industry and presents a feasibility analysis for pellet plants of different capacities.

Room II

1:30 p.m.—Technological Advances in Hydraulics and Controls

Richard Vetter, Vice-President, AMS Solutions, Rodney Trail, Industry Sector Manager Wood & Paper, Bosch Rexroth Canada

Technological advances in hydraulics have resulted in an increasing demand for control systems integration. This session discusses these breakthroughs in hydraulic design and the benefits, which include drastic energy savings as well as increased hydraulic power unit and machine performance. It will go into detail about how integration with a PLC can simplify hydraulic circuits with the complexity being handled in the control system and by creating “smart” HPUs. Example applications in the wood processing industry will be touched on before a brief Q & A.

2:00 p.m.—Closed Loop Control with Second Derivative Gain Saves the Day

Peter Nachtwey, President, Delta Computer Systems

Controlling heavy masses smoothly and precisely is a must for quality sawmill production. The proper use of closed loop second derivative gain is often the difference between failure and success. In sawmill applications, controlling heavy masses with small diameter cylinders is like controlling a mass on the end of a weak spring. The second derivative gain adds additional electronic damping that significantly reduces or eliminates oscillations where normal PID gain control fails. PID with second derivative gain, PID2, also allows the overall motion controller system gains to be increased for control and still maintain a damped response.

2:30 p.m.—Equipment Safety Certification for Class II (Wood Dust) Environments

Vivek Prasad, Hazardous Locations Team Lead, Casey Trimble, Account Manager, Intertek

This presentation focuses on certification of machinery and devices used in the lumber industry. All sawmills and lumber yards are considered a “Hazardous Location” as it pertains to wood dust. This educative discussion will center on what Intertek provides for services and testing, specifically some of the requirements to make machinery safe from fire hazards.