Industry News – June 2024

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Patrick Lumber Hosts First Open House At New Headquarters

Patrick Lumber Co. recently welcomed 170 guests to its annual St. Patrick’s Day Open House, at their Philomath headquarters building “Timber Hall” located inside Patrick Lumber Manufacturing. The event celebrated the company’s rich heritage in the heart of Oregon’s lumber industry, offering a blend of Irish-themed festivities and insights into secondary lumber manufacturing.

The Timber Hall, a timber framed structure, that overlooks Patrick Lumber Co.’s 40-acre facility, served as the perfect backdrop for this year’s open house.

The event consisted of guided mill tours, which offered visitors a firsthand look at Patrick Lumber Manufacturing and the company’s process of transforming raw timber into high-quality lumber products.

In addition to showcasing its existing facilities, guests were also invited to tour the new Hardwood mill, for which the company recently secured a $1 million grant. This soon-to-be expanded facility aims to be the only commercial sized Hardwood mill in Oregon that isn’t primarily cutting Alder.

Chelsea Zuccato, East Coast sales manager at Patrick Lumber Co., expressed her enthusiasm for the event, stating, “Our first open house at our Philomath headquarters was historic. We hosted valued agents and bankers, suppliers, customers and vendors—in the past, the event has been offsite and in our downtown Portland office. It makes sense that we shifted the event to Philomath to our new headquarters building. We’re excited to continue this tradition at Timber Hall surrounded by the lumber we sell every day, with the people who make it possible!”

Patrick Lumber Co. remains dedicated to fostering strong relationships within the lumber industry and beyond. While the event was held at the Philomath headquarters this year, the company continues to maintain a satellite office in Portland, ensuring accessibility for its valued partners.

Patrick Lumber Co. manufactures and trades wood products to diverse markets worldwide. Learn more at www.patlbr.com or call 503-222-9671.

Nyle Dry Kilns Welcomes Mark Metzger

Nyle Dry Kilns, located in Brewer ME, a manufacturer known for its high-quality and efficient dry kilns, recently announced the hiring of Mark Metzger as their new sales manager in the United States. Metzger joins the team with an extensive background in the forest products industry, accumulating over 30 years of experience.

Throughout his career, Mark has garnered extensive experience as an account manager and sales representative for a variety of esteemed Hardwood lumber companies, including Northwest Hardwoods, Weyerhaeuser, Legacy Lumber and American Lumber. His most recent role involved wood protection products, where he served as the Northeast representative for U-C Coatings. His comprehensive understanding of both the buying and selling aspects of kiln-dried lumber, coupled with his experience in selling protective products, provides him with unique insights into the specific needs of kiln-drying customers.

Metzger’s educational background includes an associate’s degree in wildlife technology from Penn State University – DuBois and a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Edinboro University. His strong commitment to delivering a customer experience rooted in honesty and integrity aligns perfectly with Nyle Dry Kilns’ values. Metzger is passionate about collaborating with customers to enhance their businesses, and his addition to the team is anticipated to bring valuable perspectives and drive further success.

Nyle Dry Kilns is thrilled to have Mark Metzger on board and looks forward to the contributions he will bring to the company and its clients.

For more information visit www.nyle.com.

Paw Taw John Services Inc. Welcomes Howie Halcomb

Paw Taw John Services Inc., located in Rathdrum, ID, recently welcomed Howard “Howie” Halcomb as their newest sales representative in their sales of control systems division, where he will be selling industrial components and temposonics.

Paw Taw manufactures carriage control systems, temposonics, rotary encoders and lasers for the Hardwood and softwood industries.

Halcomb has been in the forest products industry for the past 13 years, where he started as a lumber wholesaler at Spokane Forest Products.

Halcomb graduated from high school at Trinity Academy in 1997 and then went on to earn his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Montana in 2001.

In his free time, Halcomb enjoys fly fishing and traditional bow hunting.

For more information, call 208-627-9598 or visit www.pawtaw.com.

TS Manufacturing Makes Installations At Meherrin River Forest Products

TS Manufacturing, headquartered in Lindsay, ON, announced that Meherrin River Forest Products recently started up a new lineal edger system at their Weldon, NC, facility. The new edger line replaces their existing manual edger in their green sawmill.

The project consisted of a new three saw lineal edger system: hands free infeed with auto centering roll case, infeed belt, articulating saw box, outfeed belt and edging separator. The installation included various material handling pieces, transfer deck, belt conveyors and vibrating conveyors, to get material to and from the new edger. The project also included an A&E 3D geometric optimizer and scanner frame and a TS AccuTally software package for production reporting.

Working with the customer through several different mill layouts, TS was able to position the edger line in an area of the mill that allowed the new machine to be installed and commissioned while the mill was running, with just a small shut down to tie in some of the material handling pieces.

TS Manufacturing offers a complete line of machinery, controls and software to fit their customers mill and is celebrating their 50th anniversary this year. For more information on their complete line of sawmill and planer mill offerings, contact them at sales@tsman.com or (705) 324-3762.

Cleereman Industries Installs New Sawmill

Cleereman Industries, headquartered in Newald, WI, along with Cleereman Controls, recently completed the start-up of the new E-Pallet operation in Byesville, OH, that produces grade lumber, as well as pallet lumber. This was a new ground up sawmill that Cleereman Industries engineering team designed for E-Pallet.

The new mill consists of a several Cleereman products including their 848 debarker, two LP-42 linear carriages, Cleereman Controls 3-D scanning systems, two 100-horse-powered Hydrostatic carriage drives, modular track frames with dual air bag cable tensioners, sawyers’ cabs, completely wired with Cleereman Controls dispatch and optimization packages.

The new Cleereman sawmill also consists of drop belts, a headrig roll cases, a 654 optimized combination/gang edger, a landing table, a unscrambler, a trimmer and a green chain. Cleereman included a precision 58-inch chipper and precision vibrating conveyors, as well as three Cleereman dual overhead truck loading systems. Cleereman Industries also supplied all the electrical cabinets for E-pallet.

Cleereman engineering staff went over their design drawings with Erv Byler the project manager for E-Pallet. After a few minor changes the engineering department completed the traditional 2-D build drawing and a 3-D model that allowed the customer to see the entire mill.

Byler said, “The whole Cleereman team was professional, respectful and went the extra mile to make sure we were happy with everything. I really appreciate their enthusiasm, hard work and attention to detail.”

The concrete embedment plans were also completed so the foundation work could be completed before building arrived. Once the building was done, equipment started shipping in the order that they needed for the setting plan. Cleereman supplied all the sub-steel as a pre-engineered solution that included all the platforms and catwalks and stairs this allowed for the mill to be bolted together very quickly and set all elevations to correct height.

Cleereman Industries is providing pre-engineered solutions for new sawmill construction. “The pre-engineered solutions that we offer has saved our customers a lot of valuable time and money on these bigger projects. We also are doing the same type of pre-engineered solution to existing mills that are looking to upgrade. This service sets Cleereman apart from a lot of other manufacturers,” said Paul Cleereman, vice president of Cleereman Industries.

For more information, visit www.cleereman.com.           

Wood-Mizer Announces New WM2500 Industrial Sawmill

Wood-Mizer recently introduced the WM2500 industrial sawmill to the Hardwood and softwood industries. The WM2500 includes features to ensure precision, stability and operational efficiency. The WM2500 industrial sawmill joins the established and growing Wood-Mizer range of industrial-level sawmill equipment that includes sawmills, resaws, edgers, material handling equipment and complete sawmilling systems.

Combining an electric 30-horse-powered motor with a maximum log diameter of 41-inches and maximum cut width of 33-inches, the WM2500 industrial sawmill operates as a standalone primary headrig to saw grade or dimensional lumber, as well as pallet boards, or as a vital component of a complete sawmilling system.

The stand-alone operator stand is accompanied by an operator control console that includes joystick controls, presets, setworks, and independent hydraulic controls, making operation fast, easy and efficient, according to a statement from Wood-Mizer.

The high-speed head up/down servo drive reduces saw head positioning time so more time can be spent sawing lumber. In addition, the high-performance blade wheel belt system minimizes vibration and sawdust interference to extend blade life. The WM2500 industrial sawmill is also equipped with a hydraulic pump unit, stand-alone central electric box and pantograph, which ensures that cabling is secure and dust-free while minimizing cable wear during operation.

Since 1982, Wood-Mizer has served more than 100,000 customers throughout the world From Forest to Final Form®. Wood-Mizer offers an extensive line of equipment including narrowband portable and industrial sawmills, wideband sawmilling equipment, band resaws, board edgers, wood kilns, planer/moulders, firewood processing equipment, pallet recycling equipment, material handling equipment, sawmill blades and blade maintenance equipment for woodworking and forestry hobbyists and professionals all over the world.

Visit www.woodmizer.com for more information.

DMSi Announces New Log Mobile App

DMSi, headquartered in Omaha, NE, recently launched the DMSi Log System, a modern timber and log app and desktop system. The app primarily focuses on log scaling but also handles various aspects of log procurement and timber bid management, including receiving, transfers, movements, consumption, automated split payment, freight rate changes and log row audits.

DMSi specializes in developing and supporting inventory and order management software for the building materials industry. They offer several solutions specifically designed for Hardwood businesses, such as eLIMBS, Simply Computing software, TallyExpress and Neural Grader. The DMSi Log app is their newest Hardwood-specific offering.

Over the years, DMSi has acquired multiple legacy Hardwood software companies with log and lumber systems. This allowed them to consolidate industry expertise and transform these systems into modern technology platforms.

DMSi’s approach involved rewriting these systems using a modern tech stack, which significantly reduces manual effort. With the DMSi Log app, information automatically syncs to the desktop system when connected to Wi-Fi. Even when working offline, data syncs automatically once reconnected to Wi-Fi. According to a company spokesperson, the app boasts an intuitive and user-friendly interface, ensuring users can start using it right away without extensive training. For more information, please visit www.dmsi.com.

By Miller Wood Trade Publications

The premier online information source for the forest products industry since 1927.

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