Day 3: Timber Products

The two business that we visited today deal with commercial development of lumber products. Colonial Millworks Limited and Armstrong Wood Products/Bruce Hardwoods go through millions of board foot of lumber. The products that these companies produce will be displayed in large retail stores like Lowe's and Home Depot.The speed in which these products are produced is amazing, but the quality of the product is still maintained at a high level.

The first visit was to Colonial Millworks Limited is like Wilson Quality Millworks, just at a larger scale.The product produced from this company is mainly in moldings, but they were also working on wine racks and bookshelves. The second visit was to Armstrong Wood Products, which specialize in only producing flooring. Due to security reasons we were unable to take any photographs. The building covers around 15 acres of land and a yard that is able to store 4 million square feet of lumber. Even though these are different companies they still use some of the same machinery and applications of stain.

What I have learned from the trip is the amount of waste produced, ecological use of the waste, use of UV light in sealing process, and the productivity of the workers.

• Waste: Armstrong mentioned that before the advent of technology that waste to usable product was 50/50, with the advent of lasers this has changed to 40/60. Much of this waste is used on site in helping to produce heat for the kilns, but most of it needs to be shipped to landfills or companies that have use for it (e.g. Hammer Pellet Fuel in Elkins, WV).
• UV Light: This process has been around for 40 years, it reduces the time needed for the finish to dry. Before the advent of UV light curing techniques one had to use solvent based coatings that required time and heat to dry.
• UV Curable Finishes - Offer information to non-chemists to be able to understand the process.
• Productivity of Workers: Armstrong had a very efficient system in which everyone was working together to almost produce a million board foot within a week.The company is able to make a community that strives for one goal by having the workers input ideas on how to speed up production. They are also able to view instant data to see at what level they are producing.

Questions:

• Do you think that Armstrong has reached their limit in reducing waste to usable product? What would you suggest to reduce the amount of waste?
• What are some other uses of waste (e.g. sawdust, wood chips) other than what has been mentioned on the trip? (pellet fuel)