How can the Oregon Wood Innovation Center assist you?

There are a number of ways we might work with you. We list below our key resources and the products & services we provide.

Resources

Personnel

• OWIC Staff & Extension Specialists
• Wood Science & Engineering Faculty, Staff & Students

Facilities & Equipment

Anatomy and Wood Quality – laboratories for wood fiber characterization and wood identification; equipment including microscopes and an X-ray densitometer Biodeterioration, Wood Protection and Product Durability – pressure cylinder for wood preservation; laboratories for assessing insect and decay resistance Chemistry – Laboratories for development, testing, and troubleshooting of adhesives; research and testing of plant materials for value-added chemical products Composite Materials – equipment including presses (hot and cold), glue spreader, refiner, digester, blender, former, and wood-plastic extruder.

Computer-Aided Manufacturing – facilities for optical scanning, process modeling, simulation and optimization of wood processing enterprises Wood Drying – a 100 BF kiln for measuring volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions and 2000 BF dry kiln for research in lumber drying Timber Engineering & Structural Design – equipment for assessing strength properties of wood-based materials; scale varies from small specimens up to large members such as beams and full-scale wall systems Other facilities include environmental conditioning chambers (hot-dry, hot-wet, cold room, standards room) and state-of-the-art classrooms for on-site or distance education programs.

Products & Services

• Publications
- We cover a variety of topics including wood technology, operations research, quality and process control, marketing & business management, and lesser-known species utilization (primarily western juniper).
• New product development - We can assist your new product development efforts with by testing products for physical and mechanical properties (density, strength, shrinkage, etc.) and with market assessements.
• Technical assistance - from a phone call to a visit, our Extension faculty are available to assist you with technical questions on a variety of topics related to wood products manufacturing and marketing.
• Short courses & workshops - on topics such as business management, wood adhesion, plywood manufacturing, quality control, and dry kiln operation.
• Short-term research - Our students conduct senior projects to help companies solve pressing problems; students are also availble for summer internships.
• Longer-term research - We can work with companies on longer-term research via sponsored research with our faculty and graduate students.
• Brokering/ "Market Connections" - The most frequent requests we receive are related to who buys and who sells various types of wood products and industry-related services in Oregon. Our on-line Oregon Forest Industry Directory is designed to answer just those sorts of questions.

Contact us