Annual Report 2022
The Oregon Wood Innovation Center continues to emphasize connections to assist Oregon wood products firms solve challenges and pursue new business opportunities. We work to connect entrepreneurs and 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 2022 and brief details on where we are headed in 2023.
2022 Activities
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Workshops:
And one of our longer-running courses offered on-site for companies:
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Contract projects - as has been the case the past several years, we assisted several companies with their new product development efforts:
- Siding and roofing - a company's new line of composite siding and roofing products was (and still is as of May 2023) undergoing accelerated weathering in our MCMEC in the Green Building Materials Lab; testing includes UV exposure, water spray, as well as temperature and humidity extremes
- Millwork - we have assessed the mechanical properties of a company's new engineered millwork products
- Fire performance - we are working on a couple projects related to modification of structural panels and wood decking to improve fire performance.
- Fiber assessment - we assisted a company with microscopy work to measure the length and diameter of wood fibers they were using in their products
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:
- Wood Coatings - our work related to testing exterior coatings wrapped up in 2023; we are still analyzing the results for the larger-scale study in Madras; see the article in the Coatings journal for the results of the initial pilot project.
- Other renewable materials - a couple of projects are planned related to the use of foliage from palm trees