Has the US economy and panel market hit bottom yet?
No, according to expert economists and market analysts addressing the Forest Products Society in Corvallis, Oregon.
Bill Keil was there to bring this report

The 4th International Conference on Advanced Engineered Wood & Hybrid Composites drew attendees from throughout the world to Bar Harbor, Maine, in mid-summer.
The session, sponsored by the University of Maine Advanced Engineered Wood Composite Center, Orono, Maine, presented and discussed commercial, scientific and engineering aspects of advanced engineered wood and hybrid composites.
Zhiyong Cai, PhD, PE, materials research engineer of the US Forest Service’s Forest Products Laboratory, Madison, Wisconsin, reported on bamboo as a natural fibrous grass capable of growing in near-timber volumes and sizes.
He said it has a commercially viable global distribution from tropical to sub-frigid zones. Bamboo can be manufactured into numerous types of top-grade construction materials to meet different performances by introducing a combination of advanced restructuring technologies.
Recently, parallel bamboo strip composites (panel and beam), using phenol formaldehyde (PF) resin impregnation technology, have been investigated at the Forest Products Laboratory. The new bamboo composites show excellent mechanical properties. The modulus of elasticity of a parallel bamboo strip beam can be as high as 35GPa (5.1x106 psi), which is two- to five-times higher than most existing wood composites.
In hurricane wind testing of a parallel bamboo strip panel, a 15-pound southern pine 2x4in, driven at about 110miles/hour, failed to penetrate the 0.9in bamboo panel. The high modulus of elasticity and impact resistance of the new bamboo composites demonstrates high potential for value-added construction material.
Dr T Sean Connolly, Plum Creek Timber Co, Columbia Falls, Montana, commented that North American MDF and particleboard traditionally have used urea formaldehyde resin. Ultra low formaldehyde emission regulations and ‘green building programs’ that specify non-added-urea formaldehyde products have placed increased pressure on the industry to
develop alternative resin systems.
Plum Creek MDF, in partnership with Hexion Specialty Chemicals, has worked on developing new resin systems for MDF. Laboratory trials and mill production trials have been performed to compare panel properties and mill productivity for the following resin systems: melamine urea formaldehyde (MUF), phenol formaldehyde (PF) and polymeric methylenebis (phenylisocyanate) pMDI.
Jan Luedtke, University of Hamburg Department of Wood Science Mechanical Wood Technology, reported on a continuous production process for lightweight panels.
He said modifying process parameters, or applying adjusted gluing systems, could reduce weights. Sandwich structures are an effective way to reduce weight while maintaining mechanical properties.
Sandwich panels are typically produced in batch processes in which the layers are glued together, or by continuous processes in which a foam core is injected between facings.
As both methods lack the possibility for a simultaneous production of all layers, a novel one-stage process for an integrated continuous production of wood based facings with a foam core has been developed.
A three-layer mat, of glued wood particles and expandable thermo-active core material, is formed and then hot pressed. The formation of the surface layers takes place directly, before the expansion of the core layer. The surface layers are compacted and cured in the initial pressing stage. The core is inactive until the temperature in the middle layer exceeds a certain level. On reaching this temperature the expandable material starts to react and increases its volume. The press is then opened to the final board thickness to allow the core to expand.
Since the process is similar to the well-established wood based panel production processes, only slight modifications to the equipment are needed.
Robert Noble, Noble Environmental Technologies, La Jolla, California, reported on eCor, being developed as an engineered structural panel using agricultural land recycled paper fibres. He said the product, with its high strength-to-weight properties, can compete with traditional wood based composites such as particleboard or fibreboard.
Boards can be made with or without adhesives, or any chemicals added, for many applications.
John B Busel, American Composite Manufacturers Association, said the industry has revenues of US$16.1bn per year with 125,000 employees.
He said market factors will influence the stability and growth of the North American composites market. The state of today’s residential housing market impacts composites, but this segment may hold the key to new opportunities.
He added that regulatory issues will not go away. The industry must position itself to react to situations, as they appear. “Innovation will be the key,” he said.
James M Westcott, Heartland Resources Technologies, Waunakee, Wisconsin, described soy-PAE resin originally developed by Kaichang Li at Oregon State University and first commercialised by Columbia Forest Products. Hercules Inc holds worldwide patents.
Dr Westcott said soy flour contains about 50% protein. The balance is mainly carbohydrate with some water, ash and fat. Soy protein concentrate has about 70% protein. Most of the soluble carbohydrate is removed, but it still contains insoluble carbohydrate.
On the marketing side, Thomas Williamson, APA - The Engineered Wood Association, Tacoma, Washington, said wood-framed houses made up more than 90% of US housing starts. He said it is imperative to protect and expand wood-framed residential markets.
He advised that the raised wood floor market should be expanded and traditional wood framing maintained by educating builders, designers and code officials.
Mr Williamson said the use of wood in non-residential construction represents the largest US wood market growth opportunity. His conclusions were:
• Residential markets are being challenged by steel and
concrete.
• Gulf coast effort (rebuilding after hurricanes) can spread to all concrete slab on grade markets, including the entire south and southwest.
• Use of wood in non-residential construction represents the largest US wood market opportunity.
• Advances in FRP reinforced wood products will expand opportunities for both residential and non-residential
construction.

A pulp and paper industry association may seem to have little to do with the panel industry, but the Decorative and Industrial Laminates (DIL) Committee works hard to put together a very relevant conference every two years.
This year was no exception, with a programme covering: Introduction; Specifications; Savings/Productivity; Innovation; Green/environmental; Green/product rating; and Economic and market directions, in the seven main sessions. An eighth session of workshops discussed laminate flooring and marketing.
Michel Fortin, chairman of the DIL committee for 2006-8, introduced the symposium – and the first speaker, Dr Constantine LaPassa of North Carolina State University.
Opening Session 2, Dr LaPassa described the new, 2008, NALFA Laminate Flooring Standard. Test protocols have been amended to give explicit treatment of underlayment; improve reproducibility; and better reflect in-service conditions. A new test for surface bond strength has also been added.
The speaker concluded that performance values now better reflect the end-use of the products.
Sylvie Gauthier, technical writer, then gave an overview of decorative overlay standards for foils, light basis-weight papers, films and thermally-fused papers.
She said that the Laminated Materials Association (LMA) has produced a separate standard for each type of overlay, with a description of the attributes of each. It also sets minimum requirements or expected values for surface properties and prescribes test methods from NEMA LD3 (2005), ASTM and ‘industry-accepted methods’. In a throwback to earlier times, NEMA stands for National Electrical Manufacturers’ Association.
The CPA (Composite Panel Association), now merged with the LMA, is soon to publish a compendium of the various standards, said Ms Gauthier.
Daniel C Nelson of DCN Technology looked at the US and international standards for high pressure decorative laminate (HPDL).
Like the previous speaker, he referred to NEMA LD3 and said the standard can seen at www.nema.org/stds/ld3.cfm.
Mr Nelson also listed the major parts of the European standard for HPL – EN438, 2005 – saying that it was similar in content to the NEMA standard but goes further because it includes compact laminates and specifications for flooring applications.
“We need one harmonised standard that really works. We’ve been trying, but it is a long and hard road and won’t happen any time soon,” said the speaker.
Structured troubleshooting: A roadmap for an analysis of laminate performance was the title of Berthold Dombo’s (DSM Melamine Americas Inc) presentation, which opened Session 3.
He said that 39% of melamine consumption worldwide is accounted for by LPL (low pressure laminate) production and 8% by HPL.
Mr Dombo presented his company’s structured approach to solving performance problems in laminates, defining the problems and describing the range of analytical techniques used.
Going in a completely different direction, Jim Scott of Mead Westvaco Corporation presented a paper on the biological treatment of speciality paper mill effluent.
He said that while primary treatment can remove particulate/fibrous material, in order to meet National Pollution Discharge Elimination System rules his company had to develop a biological secondary system. This ultimately returned water to the river from whence it came cleaner than when it was extracted, said Mr Scott.
Ending the morning session of day one of the two-and-a-half day symposium, respected industry veteran Holbrook F Platts gave a resume of the history of decorative high pressure laminates.
The Hall of Fame Luncheon followed (see box text).
Session 4 on ‘Innovation’ was opened by Ron Rodeck of AET Films with a talk on Oriented Polypropylene Films (OPP).
Acknowledging the contribution and development of paper- and vinyl-based overlays, Mr Rodeck said that paper inherently has poor water resistance and vinyl “is under severe environmental pressure”.
Describing OPPs as “the new decorative laminate option”, the speaker admitted that the simplest, calendered polypropylene (PP) films had poor adhesion characteristics and print quality, with high coverage costs.
“The properties can be enhanced by extruding and orienting the PP to produce thin and strong films, but there are still poor adhesion and robustness issues,” said Mr Rodeck, claiming the answer is AET’s new biaxially-oriented enhanced OPP, or E-OPP.
Among advantages he claimed for E-OPP was that it is greener, does not absorb ink like paper does, has superior print fidelity and can act as a ‘living hinge’ between panels, which will not fatigue, tear or split.
The next speaker was Sven Kramer of Bürkle North America Inc. He described the company’s system for digital printing directly onto wood based panels as presented at the Ligna exhibition in Germany in 2007. Mr Kramer claimed the following as some of the advantages for his company’s technology: unlimited design flexibility, almost immediate design change within a production run, a photo-realistic image and reduction of production costs for small batch runs.
Lightweight panels for furniture manufacture have been raising increasing interest in recent years and another Bürkle man, Brent Warren, presented the company’s complete production line for fully-framed or frameless honeycomb panels.
Jonathan Shaw of Cytec Industries Inc looked at Technological trends in panel finishing, covering radiation curing and powder coating.
He said that what he called “energy curing” could be by means of ultra-violet (UV) radiation, visible light, or high-energy electrons. The coatings are cured, not dried as in conventional water- or solvent-based systems, he explained, saying that this had the advantage of endless pot-life for the coating material.
“Why use energy curing?” asked Mr Warren, rhetorically. “Because it is very fast – seconds versus hours for conventional drying – and the cost per cured part is less than for solvent- or water-borne finishes. The equipment also has a small footprint and uses less energy.”
He said that such coatings could be used on paper which is to be laminated to MDF or particleboard to give increased chemical, scratch and abrasion resistance.
The speaker went on to describe powder coating as another ‘green’ technology, employing no liquids or solvents, and said that UV powder coatings can save time and energy.
The second day of the symposium, and the opening of session 5 on green and environmental issues, was opened by Ray Barbee of major North American panel maker Roseburg Forest Products. His subject was ‘being green in the wood business’.
“We are one of the few companies which believes that owning timberlands is a good thing and we have over 750,000 acres,” he said.
Roseburg’s products include: softwood plywood; lumber; composite panels; speciality panels, such as hardwood plywood, MDO (medium density overlay) panels, marine plywood and melamine-faced panels; engineered wood products; and “Green Building Products”.
“What’s green about us?” asked Mr Barbee. “Nothing new. We maintain our timberlands for timber and wildlife, we plant five million seedlings a year and we have used cogeneration for a long time and we make composite and plywood panels with no added urea formaldehyde.”
Roseburg also has a wide array of environmental certification, with its Californian timberlands FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified.
Roseburg plans to use methane gas from Montana land-fills to run its Missoula particleboard mill’s dryers.
Mr Barbee forecast that most of today’s green initiatives will be ‘business as normal’ in the future, that UF resin will no longer be used in any panel type and that cogeneration/biomass plants will continue to shorten fibre supply.
Next up, Beth Studley of Holder Construction Co and chair of the US Green Building Council, Atlanta Chapter, explained sustainable design and LEED certification. This stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and certification is obtained via a system of credits earned for the use of recycled materials, FSC timber and so on.
Steelcase claims to be the largest office furniture manufacturer in the world and Mary Ellen Mika gave a presentation on what makes for ‘green’ office furniture and how to comply with the extremely stringent ‘McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry’s Cradle to Cradle’ certification. This examines every single component of a piece of furniture, whether it is actually exposed or not.
Laminates can contain undesirable chemical components and Ms Mika suggested that, for their part, laminate providers should use 100% recycled content/renewable FSC-certified underlayment, using no added-formaldehyde resins, and that laminate should be attached using no adhesive, or adhesives that are Greenguard/FES (Furniture Emission Standard) certified with no VOCs or halogenated solvents.
Session 6 was again on green issues, with regard to product rating, and John Bradfield, the CPA’s director of environmental affairs, was on hand to explain CARB (California Air Resources Board) certification as it applies to the Composite Wood Air Toxic Control Measure or ATCM. This requires third-party certification of all hardwood plywood, particleboard and MDF panels sold in California or utilised in finished products sold there. January 2009 will present the first of many deadlines with which manufacturers will have to comply.
Still on the subject of the CARB regulations, Mike Zimmerman of Sauder Woodworking Company, a furniture manufacturer, described how such a company must be able to trace all supplies for compliance – and label its products correctly. He also touched on the implications for imported furniture. “Imported products are a huge problem,” he said. “They make the domestic situation look easy!”
As nobody wants two different stocks of finished product, be it panels or furniture – one for California and one for everywhere else – this is effectively national legislation, said the speaker.
Formaldehyde seems to be a word that is never far from anybody’s lips in the industry today and Betsy Natz of the Formaldehyde Council (a non-profit Washington DC-based trade association) was there to defend it.
“This is one of the most extensively studied chemicals in commerce and it would be almost unimaginable if we were to try to take it out of commerce completely,” she said.
Tom Julia, president of the CPA, was the keynote speaker during lunch on this second day.
He reported that 95% of the particleboard, MDF and hardboard producers in North America (including Mexico) are members of his association.
The Decorative Surfaces Council is a stand-alone committee within the CPA and Mr Julia said the association’s “tag-line” for this year is Advancing the wood based panel and decorative surfacing industries.
He said the association was more proactive and has a more ‘green’ market focus. He added that the CPA has also opened its International Testing and Certification Centre (ITCC).
Perhaps surprisingly to some, with regard to the CARB rule Mr Julia declared: “The CPA supports the CARB rule and its conditional federalisation. There is no opportunity to roll this rule back. Our approach is to build a consensus and work towards a rule that will work”.
He did, however, express concerns about the proposed deconstructive testing of panels or furniture, such as removing the surface covering of the panels:  “they would not be testing the product you sold, as it was sold,” Mr Julia pointed out.
“We cannot afford to be passive or defensive when it comes to environmental matters Those who watch the world as it passes by are left behind to ponder their irrelevance,” he concluded.
Session 7, Economic and market directions, was opened by Eric R Bober of Pöyry Forest Industry Consulting.
He said that LPM growth is decelerating, while Europe is the biggest market and drives global demand, and that Russia and Turkey are currently driving European demand.
In HPL/CPL (continuous pressure laminate) demand has stagnated in North America and Europe, while Asia is stable with regional differences. Western European companies are increasingly going down the continuous pressing route.
Mr Bober went on to say that surfacing remains a challenging business, but recovery is expected but he forecast that market growth for LPM and laminates will remain slow.
He said people and innovation/differentiation remain important to competitiveness in a down-cycle, and in the supply chain he forecast integration and clustering, acquisitions, partnerships or joint ventures and operational improvements such as network optimisation.
“European players have succeeded in creating value from both vertical and horizontal integration,” he said.
Darrell Keeling works for Roseburg Forest Products, but his presentation was on behalf of the CPA as its chairman for 2008 and concerned the panel market outlook.
Mr Keeling cited production pressures as being rising resin costs and falling fibre supply with increasing competition for that raw material, including from biofuels as well as pellet production.
But it was not all doom and gloom. The speaker forecast:  “the decade ahead holds great promise, with a housing recovery and a stronger industry with products configured to match green markets.
“We must get the formaldehyde issues behind us,” concluded Mr Keeling.
Jim Gould of the Floor Covering Institute outlined the rapid development of laminate flooring in the last 15 years.
He suggested that in order to hit the commercial flooring market, a way needs to be found around the problem of expansion gaps.
Michael Huth of Mead Westvaco Corporation looked at the marketplace perception of laminates and cautioned against the perception of “cheap plastic laminates – that is only if we can’t tell the story.” Mr Huth suggested that a higher price equals a higher perceived value to the consumer.
Launching session 8A, the laminate flooring workshop, Andrzej Denisiewicz of Technocell Dekor described the backing paper manufacturing technology for laminate flooring, pointing out that it plays a crucial role in keeping the panels flat, which is sometimes not fully understood.
Next came Dirk Koltze of machinery maker Siempelkamp, who described the advantages of that company’s multi-piston press for short-cycle pressing, with better pressure distribution in width and length.
Jean Briere of Shaw Industries Inc presented his paper on impregnation of paper for laminate flooring. He said the important process elements were: paper formation, expansion, saturability and surface properties. Also important are raw resins and their formulation, as well as plasticizers because melamine is so brittle.
This article can only be a brief overview of a conference that was packed with information on a wide range of subjects which will have been of interest to panel makers/processors and those involved in the overlay producing sector. If you would like further information, please visit www.tappi.org and click on Decorative/Industrial Laminates.

The annual April ‘Pullman Symposium’ drew 200 panel people from 11 countries to Washington State University in early April.Where once particleboard ruled the event, this year’s session centred on the wood-plastic combinations that are drawing so much interest. Powder surface coatings and integral panel colouring also drew attention as well as air quality control.
WSU’s Bob Tichy and Vikram Yadama co-chaired the 39th annual session.
Michael Ainsworth, executive vice president of Canada’s Ainsworth Lumber Co Ltd, Vancouver, BC was keynote speaker. His company started a switch to OSB some years ago and is now North America’s fourth largest producer, with mills in BC, Alberta and Ontario in Canada, and Minnesota in the US.
Mr Ainsworth told attendees: “Market forces shape where we go as an industry.We have been running at capacity for the last several years with a tremendous growth in the US market.”
He said construction remains the largest market for panels, continuing: “The boom has subsided, but it [the market] is still solid. Pricing has been very strong for the past seven quarters.”
Mr Ainsworth said plywood imports continue to increase. Agreeing with most industry sages, he said: “China is the wild card.” Looking ahead, he said 2007 will be a “very great year” for additional capacity.
He judged two OSB industry thorns as higher resin and transportation costs. He said these are products of sky-rocketing oil prices and railroads failing to invest in new equipment.
On resin, he predicted changes in PF resins with the move towards thicker panels and the trend towards continuous pressing.
He asked rhetorically: “Will OSB finally evolve into oriented strand lumber?”
Maximum achievable control technology (MACT), is absorbing much US time and resources in panel industry pollution control and enforcement will begin next year.
Dave Smith, Evergreen Engineering Inc, Eugene, Oregon said the main focus is on dryers and presses. The regulations allow for a ‘low risk’ listing for mills already passing the mandated control standards. He estimated some 200 plants would be in this class with 30 to 50 of them finally certified.
Gary Heroux, Composite Panel Association, Gaithersburg, Maryland, commented on indoor air quality in relation to composite panels. He declared that the industry has reduced formaldehyde emissions from panels by more than 80% over the past 20 years.
Mr Heroux said most consumer products made with composite panels are not used in raw form, but have some type of surface finish over the substrate acting as a barrier to off-gassing, thus reducing emissions.
The conference next turned its attention to recycling. ‘Green’ mills based on recycled wood have had varying success. However there is apparently a growing market from some who want to make an environmental point.
Reinhard Kessing, Keskon Engineering, Miami, Florida, described GreenTech Panels in Minden, Louisiana, as the first North American particleboard plant to operate successfully with 100% recycled post-consumer waste wood. Annual input is 35,000 tons.
The mill uses pallets, crates, cable reels, construction and industrial wood. One of the keys is compaction of the residues, such as pallets and reels, to allow more material per truck load and consequent lower raw material transportation costs. Pallets come from within a 150-mile radius. Another key is a stringent cleaning process with nine points where debris and metal are removed from the raw material.
Keskon designed and engineered the plant. Crushing, cleaning, metal and debris removal were by Pal srl of Italy. Drying, conveying, blending and pressing with continuous Berndorf bands and sanding were by Modul Systeme of Germany.
Drying is fairly conventional except for two more wind sifters after drying – one for core and the other for surface. The objective is to remove the last bit of ash and other contaminants from the furnish.
Drying costs are lower because the wood is generally at or below 20% moisture content. However, the material requires about 1% higher resin content.
Inge Larsson, Metso Panelboard, and Steve Bruntlett Jr, Masonite International, Laurel, Mississippi, described a steam cleaning system used by Masonite for removing VOCs before the dryer.
Their solution was to separate the dirty steam coming from the refiner, together with most of the volatiles from fibre processing. The dirty steam is condensed and treated in a conventional water treatment plant. The fibres are then conveyed from the steam separator, helped by fresh steam to allow for conventional blow line blending in a secondary blow line ahead of the dryer. Dryer emissions are mainly volatiles from the resin added in the blow line and are managed by control devices such as RTOs.
Rolf Hagner and Cole Martin of Dieffenbacher outlined the growing market for high precision in-register embossing in producing finished composite panels used in such products as laminate flooring and furniture components. Patterns and surface structures are matched to bring authenticity to appearance and touch.
Fred Kurpiel, president of Imeas, Peachtree, Georgia, substituted for Michele Pagnoni, Pagnoni Impianti of Monza, Italy, in describing the growing switch to continuous pressing for surface laminating.
Pagnoni has eight Easylam presses in Europe, handling glued overlaid veneer and laminates bonded to veneer-based and composite panel substrates.
The system can use low pressures and temperatures. It feeds flooring at up to 30m/min. No heat passes through the thickness of the material. A separate hardener provides for the necessary heat to support glue line curing.
Hartmut Pallmann, of Pallmann Maschinenfabrik, Germany, outlined his new double-belt system for bonding natural fibres, plastics and additives in which computer-controlled gravity feeding requires bins and hoppers able to work reliably with sticky materials and bridging in the line. A Palltruder applies friction heat and high pressure to the raw materials. The pressure forces the plastic into the natural fibre bundles, encapsulating the individual fibres and forming a free-flowing agglomerate.
Steam released from the fibres is handled by a vacuum exhaust system.
Professor Mike Wolcott,Washington State University Wood Materials and Engineering Laboratory, then outlined the state of the wood-plastic composite industry, citing Trek decking as probably the best known of the genre in the US.
One particular advantage, he noted, is the ability to do shape and form. Door and window components are typically extruded. Polymer applications go more into durable applications such as house siding.
Dr Wolcott said a new generation of composites is coming about with woodplastic merging into vinyl polymer.
Raw material is largely wood flours in the 20 to 60-mesh range in North America. Pine, oak, and maple are the main species.
Costs of many of these products are higher than wood, but they have real advantages, according to Dr Wolcott. Life cycles are better than pressure treated wood and colour  stability is better; he said consumers demand a high level of colour stability.
Karl Englund, research associate, Washington State University Wood Materials and Engineering Laboratory, explained: “The wood cavities and cells are filled with plastic. You can determine success by checking density.”
He broke down production into raw material preparation, getting it into extrudable form, blending, incorporating plastic into the wood, profile extrusion, cooling, cutting to size and surfacing, if desired.
Changing the subject to press protection and quality control matters, Kai Greten, technical director of GreCon Inc, Tigard, Oregon, described his company’s SuperScan and Dieffensor systems.
Dieffensor is x-ray inspection of the mat between the pre-press and hot press. It detects foreign bodies or high density spots in the mat which might damage the steel belts of the press. It also provides continuous measurement of weight per unit area for rapid response.
SuperScan is an optical inspection of panel surfaces in print, paint, paper lamination and melamine. It is located where the operator can make immediate adjustments in response to the optical inspection.