Annual Report 2017

The Oregon Wood Innovation Center continues emphasizes connections to assist Oregon wood products firms solve challenges and pursue new business opportunities. We work to connect industry personnel with our resources and technical information, help connect buyers and sellers of Oregon forest products, and enable industry professionals to network with one another.

Below are highlights of our activities and accomplishments in 2017 and brief details on where we are headed in 2018.

2017 Activities

Publications - A couple new Research Briefs were developed this year including:

• Establishing New Markets for CLT - Lessons Learned and
• The Global CLT Industry: Preliminary Results, 2016




• And the latest installment in our Wood-Based Entrepreneurs Toolkit - Operational Planning

Courses/Workshops - we offered several of our long-standing courses - How to Dry Lumber for Quality & Profit, the NAWLA Wood Basics Course, Wood Adhesion Short Course, Forest Products Management Development, OWIC Recruiting Days, and our Quality Control in Wood Products Manufacturing course (on-site for 2 companies) as well as: NAWLA Executive Management Institute Wood Composites Science Distance Education series - 6 modules are now available: Wood Structure, Wood & Water Relationships, Applied Statistics & Data Analysis, Wood Adhesion Science & Technology, Strand-Based Composite Manufacturing, and Practical Wood Adhesives Technology and a 7th course on Plywood & Veneer-Based Products will be available mid-2018.

• Contract projects - numerous projects were conducted to help Oregon firms solve problems and explore new products and new markets including:
  
  • Evaluation of wood quality of Willamette Valley ponderosa pine; trials on collection of gum/resin from the species didn't pan out - little to no resin was collected
  • We assisted the Softwood Export Council with a project to develop trade show displays of various grades of western softwoods.
  • One of our Renewable Materials students worked as an intern for Accsys Technologies in The Netherlands and then returned to OSU to conduct extensive testing of mechanical & physical properties of acetylated radiata pine and red alder as well as other modified products such as thermally-modified and furfurylated.
  • Assistance with new product development:
    
    • Determination of the manufacturing parameters and material properties of composite panels made from agricultural residues
    • Evaluation of bending properties and screw withdrawal strength of new constructions of hardwood plywood for 2 companies

  After a few decades of planning and discussion, we were successful in wrapping up a project to establish design values for western juniper lumber Several projects related to hardwood plywood and flooring manufacturing and performance: Determination of the cause of warp in laminated panels Continuation of our research into veneer checking in hardwood plywood and engineered flooring Other projects during the year included several requests for wood identification, and testing of adhesive bonds in exterior exposure for doors

  Small-Scale Bending Tests of Western Juniper

Outcomes and Impacts

• Following one of our quality control workshops, a manager at one of the mills stated, "I can easily say, without any reservation, that you have helped [the company] a lot with the Statistics class. People are using the tools you helped them with on a regular basis... I do not know how to quantify that but... I am positive it has had an excellent dollar return for us."

• We continue to work quite closely with Formology, in Hubbard, OR in their product development efforts, and it is exciting to see the wide array of new products the company continues to launch.

Work In Progress

We also continue to focus on both short-term problem-solving technical assistance as well as longer-term efforts to assist Oregon firms remain competitive in the global marketplace. Examples of work-in-progress include:

• Workshops -
  
  • after a long hiatus, we have decided to offer a workshop on Structural Plywood & Veneer-Based Products.
  • Hosting the 24th annual International Wood Machining Seminar in Corvallis (Aug 25-30, 2019)
• Research and Technical Assistance - several projects are currently underway including:
  
  • Measuring the efficacy of a dip treatment to reduce shrink/swell in western juniper lumber.
  • Assessing 12 wood coating systems for durability on
  • Wrapping up the 'Valley Pine' project - assessing machinability and permeability
  • Continuing to maintain and update our Oregon Forest Industry Directory

Tall Wood Institute - Check out the progress at http://tallwoodinstitute.org/