Structural Board Association (SBA) President Mark Angelini recounted the association’s start 30 years ago as the waferboard association. Reporting on progress, he said there were more than 500,000 visits to the SBA website last year. During the past year the association updated and reprinted technical manuals as well as publishing a manual in Mandarin, producing a new informative CD and exhibiting in 15 international trade shows in Canada, China, Germany and Mexico. He acknowledged that times will be getting a little more difficult for OSB. "It is better to work as a group," he said.
Trust the process
Motivational speaker Kevin Burns, Red Deer, Alberta, said: "Business gets better when the people in the business get better. "Every decision, event and experience put you here today. You’ve been able to handle everything that you’ve been given. That is the process. Trust the process. "You’re going to be tested. You have to learn to speak up. Be peaceful in knowing that the world and your rôle in it are unfolding with meticulous precision and perfect balance, as it should," he advised. "Fear is your greatest enemy; doubt is its catalyst. You will fear only when you doubt. "Every day counts. You might not have tomorrow. You are in charge of your own destiny. When you offer up excuses, you offer yourself defeat." He concluded: "You will never be beaten until you say you are beaten".
Patricia Mohr, vice-president economics, Scotiabank, Toronto, Canada, said commodities have seen the second most powerful expansion since World War II, but the index has moved down. She noted it as the beginning of a cyclical fall of OSB and lumber after the fifth expansion year. China has nailed the industrial production expansion with 17.8% per year, compared with the G7 nations’ 2.8%, US’ 3.6%, and Japan’s 3.1%. Ms Mohr said monetary policies are returning to neutral. "US inflation has been remarkably well contained in the current business expansion, despite solid economic growth averaging almost 4% since mid 2002. The US housing boom has been longer and more broadly-based than earlier, but starts are expected to wane by late this year." Canadian starts have been very strong, but she predicted that they, too, will fall off. She said Canadian oil is second in the world, particularly in the burgeoning western province of Alberta. Ms Mohr predicted that building material demand, off since 2004, will continue to drop next year. OSB offers attractive prices at the expense of plywood.
Louis Hess, Managing Director, SmartPly Europe Ltd, Waterford, Ireland, described the North American OSB market as "enormous". He said OSB substitution for plywood in North America is clear as industry transitions toward plantation forestry. He predicted the trend will continue. Mr Hess indicated that the plywood substitution effect is much less clear in Europe where plywood production has stayed level while OSB climbed. However, he forecast that European OSB production will surpass plywood this year. He said the panel of choice for UK flooring underlayment is particleboard, while in Belgium, the market likes OSB. In Scandinavia, he said 1’2in T&G OSB is used for wall sheathing and roof panels; southern Europe uses almost all concrete. Comparing OSB specifications, he reported that North American emphasis is on mechanical/strength, large panel testing and voluntary standards, while in Europe there is more focus on internal bond strength, small piece testing, mandatory standards and moisture stability.
He said "A fragmented European market needs flexible capacity, comparing Europe’s seven continuous units pressing 72% of the output with six, daylight, presses turning out 28%. "In North America, 57 daylight presses produce 90%, while five continuous machines produce only 10%." Chris Gaston, director, Markets & Economics, Forintek Canada Corp, Vancouver BC, said virtually no structural panels are treated for insect damage. He said the US prefers OSB to plywood, but "you don’t want to ignore termite damage". He said a survey showed that in home purchase criteria, price was most important, followed by energy efficiency, resistance to insects, resale value and resistance to decay, wind and flooding. A 40% share of homeowners and 41% of builders/remodellers had an extremely positive perception of treated wood products. Martin Ohlmeyer, Federal Research Center for Forestry and Forest Products, University of Hamburg, Germany, outlined wood heat treatment. He listed advantages of: lower EMC, improved dimensional stability, improved durability against decay and lower thermal conductivity.
He also listed drawbacks of lower density, reduced MOE and MOR, reduced impact strength, and increased brittleness. Fabio Chiara, North America and Asia sales manager for PAL srl, Ponte di Piave, Italy, outlined the Quadradyn OSB screening system, which removes fines and sorts for core and face material. He said the Quadradyn system is suitable for green and dry strand screening with no strand breakage and no fines generation. He said the system is quite efficient with low maintenance and no plugging. It has a smaller footprint than a drum screen. He listed other attributes: adjustable diversion gates, change of shaft speed, working angle and gap setting, a fire extinguishing system and explosion vents. The Dynascreen secondary screen has interlocking W-rolls to remove the very fine material from the main flow. Cole Martin, Dieffenbacher Inc, Atlanta, Georgia, outlined advantages of his firm’s continuous press design as: special value-added products, much higher physical board properties, life time heating platens which can sustain extremely high temperatures and less thickness variations.
He presented the advantages of his OSL/OSB Conti concept as:
* Best forming of long strands
* Steam pre-heating for faster curing
* Two pre-heating modes for OSL and OSB
* Controlled density profile
* Very short time lag between pre-heating and compression
* Screen imprint on board’s bottom surface
* Clean press and easy maintenance.
Mr Martin offered advantages of continuous pressing of laminated veneer lumber. OSL uses the same wood as OSB with favourable raw material and production costs. Continuous pressing provides higher production efficiency and a consistent product, he added. The system has a 12m-long metering bin with an integrated scale, laser level control, and controlled bin air flow. There are pre-orienters in the surface layer formers.A steam system pre-heats the surface layers of the complete mat resulting in no resin pre-cure between pre-heating and press. Bill Tucker, president, Florida Wood Council, Mount Dora, Florida, warned that the concrete industry is taking market share from the wood industry. "We must develop counters to their fear tactics, develop an offensive as well as defensive building code strategy. We should keep competing industries on the defensive."
Kelly McCloskey, Wood Promotion Network, Vancouver, British Columbia, said concerns about forests are lessening and industry reputation is improved. He said key strategies for success in promoting wood building are to focus on a limited number of regions, ensure flexibility to take advantage of unique opportunities and be driven by projects and building types. Professor Quinglin Wu, University of New Brunswick, said OSB might be treated against decay and insect attack by pre-treatment of green strands during drying, dry strands during blending, or finished panels. He declared, "Treated structural engineered wood products have a strong future. There is an increasing need for exterior use of composite products." Prof Wu emphasised the need for education of the public and builders to the fact that the additional cost of these products is negligible, compared with future maintenance of untreated materials. Y H Chui, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, said the number of I-joist mills increased from 16 in 1969 to 40 in 1995.
He said shallower joists benefit more from using higher quality web and called for a better understanding of the influence of web stock properties on design properties. Jean-Paul AuCoin, Hexion Specialty Chemicals, Alberta, Canada, said, "It is important not to rely simply on one analytical tool to provide information about a resin system as no analysis tool is all-encompassing. "It is essential to learn as much as possible about a resin system by combining information from the analytical tools and pilot panel studies to ensure successful implementation at OSB mills." Chad Darby, SECOR International Inc, Tualatin, Oregon, US, provided advice on Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) standards. The standards are for emissions from mills and cover a variety of sources. He said by October 1, 2008 existing sources must complete required modifications, conduct required testing, have EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) approval of low-risk submittal, and have submitted a permit modification.
World experts mull OSB production and markets
Some 70 experts from 11 nations exchanged information in Miami Beach, Florida for the Structural Board Association's third world OSB symposium in May. The adjoining hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast will be an important OSB market during the next few years of rebuilding from recent storms. And the delegates got a personal preview of the bitter weather as thunder storms, huge hail, torrential rain and raging winds lashed their headquarters at Miami Beach Resort Hotel. The storm, which broke a long Florida drought, forced a change in meeting rooms. Containers lined the original room catching water coursing down from a leaking roof, while nearby new high-rise building construction continued in one of the US' largest building markets.