At Large
Industry Developements
TECO, Sun Prairie, Wis., has announced the expansion of its certification capabilities. The company is now accredited to certify structural glued-laminated timber by the Standards Council of Canada (SCC) and accredited to test glulam by the International Accreditation Service (IAS).
The expansion gives TECO the ability to certify glulam in accordance with the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) O177-06 qualification code for manufacturers of structural glued-laminated timber. TECO certification is offered to manufacturers selling structural glulam in Canada.
Features
Improved Mind Set by David Abbott
New South Companies, Inc., a member of the Canfor group of companies, purchased what was then Chesterfield Lumber here in late 2007 with the understanding that it would need additional resources and capital improvements to be competitive. With the addition of Darlington, there are now four New South mills, all in the Carolinas.
“When New South acquired this site, there was no formalized maintenance program,” according to Chief Engineer, Travis McDonald. In 2008 and 2009, management started a cultural shift in processes and mindsets in an ongoing effort to implement preventative and predictive maintenance.
Man of Detail by David Abbott
Steve Singleton, 48, general manager of New South’s mill in Camden, SC, never thought of himself as the kind of person who would be selected as Timber Processing’s 22nd annual Man of the Year. He was shocked when he received the call, and feels uncomfortable with the attention. And when time came to work up this article, his sense of humility showed. Singleton had no one on hand to trumpet his accomplishments for him, and he didn’t spend any time tooting his own horn. Instead he spent most of the afternoon giving credit to everyone else around him who has contributed to his success. And that may be the best reason of all for his selection.
Turning on the Heat by Robert Newman
September 22, 2009 the USEPA (Environmental Protection Agency) issued a final rule for mandatory reporting of greenhouse gases (GHG) from large GHG sources in the United States. The rule requires reporting of annual emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), hydrofluorcarbons (HFCs), perfluorochemicals (PFCs), and other fluorinated gases. The rule (40 CFR 98) applies to certain facilities that emit GHGs and to suppliers of fossil fuels and industrial GHGs. Reporting is at the facility level. Facilities were to start collecting data on January 1, 2010. The emissions report for 2010 is due to the USEPA on March 31, 2011.
Machinery Row
Equipment & Supplier News
Scotch & Gulf Lumber (formerly Scotch Lumber) is reopening its mill in Fulton, Ala. and upgrading it with USNR equipment. Included with a recent order is a new centering infeed table for an existing McGehee curve-sawing gang system that will allow cants to be fed from two sides, and an endura chain bed upgrade for the gang. The mill will receive a new Newnes-design edger with top reman head mounted upstream from the saw box, and edger picker outfeed table.
The existing edger and trimmer optimizers and M6 scanner interface will be replaced with the MillExpert system. In applications like this the existing M6 sensors are reused allowing the mill to extend the useful life of the scanning system while taking advantage of the latest advances in optimization technology. The upgrades include adding USNR’s BioVision to the M6 trimmer scan frame. This bolt-on addition will allow the mill to trim and sort an increasing variety of specialty products at even higher process rates, improv
News Feed
Hard News in the Making
U.S. Dept. of Agriculture published its regulatory proposal for the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP). The proposal suspended the acceptance of new applications for BCAP subsidy funds until the regulation has been finalized. The proposal also states that USDA will refrain from “diverting any materials potentially eligible for BCAP matching payments from existing value-added production processes already occurring in the marketplace.”
Authorized in the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008, BCAP is designed to ensure that a sufficiently large base of new, non-food, non-feed biomass crops is established in anticipation of future demand for renewable energy consumption. BCAP is intended to reduce the financial risk for farmers, ranchers and forest landowners by providing incentive payments to those who invest in the production, harvest, storage and transportation of new first-generation energy crops that displace hydrocarbon-based materials now used for heat, power and
Product Scanner 10
New Products & Technologies
At the same time Cloutier has been working with Uddeholm steel and grinding machine companies to manufacture Cougar band saws that meet the highest standard in the industry. The results are clearly evident and Cloutier cites the following proven benefits: thermal pressure leveled for permanent flatness, built in memory repeatedly returns saws to their original tension, greatly increased elasticity in saw plate, longer run times because the saw does not lose level and tension in operation, thinner plate for narrowest kerf in its category, big reduction in bench time coming off the mill, and significantly better target sizes and yields.
The Issues
What More Can You Ask For? by Rich Donnell
We are only a quarter into the year, and it has already been a good one for Steve Singleton. There are two reasons.
One reason is because he is named Timber Processing’s 2010 Man of the Year. Singleton is general manager of Canfor-New South’s mill in Camden, SC. He was there long before Canfor entered the New South picture. I’ve known Steve for many years, have had the pleasure of visiting him at the Camden mill, and he graciously participated in presenting a talk on maintenance at a conference I chaired on the West Coast.