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
Facilities & Equipment
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Anatomy and Quality of Renewable Materials – laboratories for fiber characterization and material identification; equipment including microscopes and an X-ray densitometer - Biodeterioration, Protection and Durability – pressure cylinder for impregnating materials with preservative chemicals; laboratories for assessing insect and decay resistance
- Biomass and Biofuels – a ½-meter diameter dryer for biomass and equipment for analyzing the physical characteristics and energy value (e.g., particle size distribution, ash content and composition, and calorimetric heating values) of biomass feed stocks.
- 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.
- Green Building Materials Laboratory (GBML) - a 5,000 ft2 shared resource laboratory of Oregon Built Environment and Sustainable Technologies Center (Oregon BEST). GBML includes research activities from the Schools of Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering and Civil and Construction Engineering and the Department of Wood Science & Engineering at OSU. Equipment housed in this laboratory allows for the characterization, development and testing of high performance sustainable materials for a wide variety of applications including buildings and transportation infrastructure.
- Wood Drying – a 100 BF kiln for measuring volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions, a 2000 BF dry kiln for research in lumber drying, and a ½-meter diameter dryer for biomass.
- Timber Engineering & Structural Design – equipment for assessing strength properties of renewable 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 by testing products for physical and mechanical properties (density, strength, shrinkage, etc.) and with market assessments.
- 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 assist with projects to help companies solve pressing problems; students are also available 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.
