Friday Offcuts – 17 July 2015
Click to Subscribe - It's FREE! We’ve often talked about the need to get into the minds and hearts of the wider community – in selling the forestry and wood products industry message. In large part, the efforts of the local industry have been piece-meal. They’ve come (rather infrequently) from different parts of the industry. Generally efforts are reactions to issues or announcements rather than getting on the front foot, using all forms of media and selling a consistent message through a co-ordinated and concerted campaign.In the US last week, the paper industry announced that they're fronting to the tune of US$25 million (annually) on just such a drive. A new media campaign, "How Life Unfolds" has been set up. It's the industry's attempt to slow the decline in paper usage, to grow the demand for paper-based packaging and to educate the consumer and community. Nationwide, paper and packaging is a US$132 billion industry but worryingly, since 2000, annual consumption of paper products has fallen by 46%. It’s not an anti-digital campaign explains the Paper and Packaging Board but rather, it’s designed to remind people that paper is important and relevant to their lives. It’s also going to be pushing the environmental angle - highlighting the importance of paper recycling and trees as a renewable resource. Locally, you’d have to wonder where the impetus is right now to get the wider community on side. The message you’d think is pretty straight forward. We have a unique, growing, renewable and sustainable industry. We’re talking here about outlining just what forestry and wood products bring to the community, to the economy and to the environment. It’s the message that Mum and Dad should be picking up tomorrow as they open their Saturday newspaper. It’s the messages that the younger generation should be picking up on-line or through their social networking. Question is – are we doing enough? Are we doing anything in this space at the moment? Technology updates this week include a project in Sweden looking at 3D printing of cellulose houses. Much closer to home, a Western Australian company, Fastbrick Robotics has just developed a prototype robot to lay bricks. Designed by the company’s chief technical officer (an aeronautic and mechanical engineer) the plan is to dramatically cut building costs by reducing the brick laying process from around five to six weeks down to just two days. The first commercial unit is expected to be available next year. The use of robotics and automation is also being covered as part of the upcoming sawmilling technology event, WoodTECH 2015, that’s running for local sawmillers in September. Registrations are flowing in now with many of the earlier registrations taking full advantage of the super cheap rates (a special 2 for 1 deal, the idea being to build in many of the company’s key production and operational staff into this two-yearly update). Remember, this special deal CLOSES Friday of next week so if keen, best get onto it today. Finally, the close co-operation between Australia, New Zealand and Canada has again been demonstrated this week with the deployment of firefighters from both sides of the Tasman to assist the currently stretched firefighting teams working in Canada. Hundreds of new fires are reportedly still starting on a daily basis. They’ll be working with local teams and volunteers from other countries to battle more than 400 bushfires covering more than 1.3 million hectares (this was the area given earlier in the week. Hard to get your head around though – close to 75 percent of New Zealand’s entire plantation estate) that are raging across Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan. The call up of local specialists also highlights just how well regarded our firefighters are around the world.
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New low odour LOSP treatment world firstTimberlink Australia is the first in the world to offer a new Low Odour LOSP (Light Organic Solvent Preservative) treatment that has up to 30 times less odour than traditional LOSP formulations. This world first patent pending treatment has been developed in conjunction with their major preservative partner, Arch Chemicals (Lonza) and is now being used to treat the Timberlink Green Low Odour Structural Pine range.“We believe new low odour Timberlink Green is one of the most innovative timber products released in Australia for some years. It has all the benefits of conventional LOSP treated product, but without the typical odour,” states Dr. David Humphrey, Asia Pacific Research & Development Manager for Arch Wood Protection. LOSP has become Australia’s preferred treatment for H3 outdoor treated timber with its dimensional stability and consistent appearance. It also had no complicated usage restrictions attached to it making it ideal for all above ground outdoor building applications such as pergolas and deck substructures. However the distinct odour associated with traditional LOSP treated timber can make storage, handling and usage of the product a negative experience for some customers and end-users. “The preference for LOSP for outdoor structural products has occurred because the market could clearly see benefits with product stability and less stress in the timber with no need to re-dry timber after treatment to maintain structural ratings. These benefits coupled with Timberlink Australia’s pruned log feedstock and strict grading rules at our Bell Bay sawmill is establishing a strong market preference for our Timberlink Green H3 LOSP outdoor structural range,” explains Trevor Innes, GM of Technical and Environment at Timberlink Australia. Australian forestry report just releasedAustralia's forestry sector showed signs of improvement in 2013–14, according to a report released by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES).The report highlighted mixed results for the forestry sector, with increases in logs harvested, wood product output, and trade in wood products. This contrasted with a continued decline in domestic consumption of many wood products and stagnant investment in plantations. ABARES executive director Karen Schneider said the latest data suggested Australia’s forestry sector may be recovering, after a difficult period which saw the industry contract under adverse conditions such as low levels of residential construction, weak global demand for wood products and a high Australian dollar. “The volume of logs harvested increased 12 per cent, to above 25 million cubic metres in 2013–14, with growth across the board, including in native forests,” Ms Schneider said. “Overall, the value of logs harvested in 2013–14 reached almost $1.8 billion, the highest gross value of log production since 2010–11.” However, despite growth in wood product manufacturing, increased housing activity and growth in both imports and exports of wood products in 2013–14, other forestry sector indicators remained weak. “Parts of Australia’s forestry sector are still facing challenging conditions with consumption of some wood products such as wood-based panels and hardwood sawn timber continuing to decline in 2013–14, and a contraction in the area of plantations over the year,” Ms Schneider said. “The latest statistics highlight both the resilience of Australia’s forestry sector in recent years, as well as the challenges that the sector will continue to face into the future, as it seeks to increase investment and expand markets for wood products.” Australian forest and wood products statistics: September and December quarters 2014 can be accessed here US paper makers’ promotional campaign launched
Manufacturers of building products, paper and cardboard in the US are trying to recast consumers’ negative perceptions about their industries by tapping into to a federal marketing program used primarily by producers of agricultural commodities. The paper and packaging industry has kicked off its campaign with a series of commercials and print advertisements aimed at reminding consumers how often they use paper and cardboard in their daily lives. The campaign, featuring the slogan “How Life Unfolds,” is being bankrolled with a 35-cent-a-ton fee on paper products that most U.S. manufacturers must pay for at least five years. The fee is expected to generate about US$25 million a year. The effort is what’s known as a checkoff program, modeled on farm-product campaigns begun in the 1960s that have produced such memorable slogans as the beef industry’s “It’s What’s for Dinner,” “The Other White Meat” for the nation’s pork producers, and the dairy sector’s “Got Milk?” Under government rules, the industry-guided marketing fees can be levied only if companies in the relevant industry approve them through a referendum. For agriculture programs, the U.S. Department of Agriculture functions as a referee, requiring eligible companies to pay and approving messaging to prevent disparaging ads aimed at competing industries and products. The Agriculture Department oversees fee programs for about 20 commodity industries. The hardwood-lumber industry is seeking a USDA checkoff, while producers of concrete blocks are attempting to establish one that would be run by the Commerce Department. The Energy Department oversees a 17-year-old program for propane that funds research and development and workforce training. With the paper-industry program, 85% of the companies eligible to pay the fee—which collectively account for 95% of the industry’s annual output—voted in favour of it, according to the Paper and Packaging Board, the industry group that manages the program. Companies producing less than 100,000 tons annually are exempted from the fee. “We needed to do something holistic across the whole industry,” said John Williams, Chief Executive of Montreal-based paper company Domtar Corp. and chairman of the paper board. “On its own, Domtar wouldn’t have much success telling its story.” Paper-industry executives are stressing the idea that paper can be recycled, and that falling demand for paper, rather than reducing consumption of forests, merely gives the owners of managed timberlands incentives to sell their land for housing subdivisions, shopping centers or golf courses. Producers of softwood lumber used in construction framing adopted a checkoff a few years ago. Now, the hardwood industry, which produces oak and maple lumber, is awaiting the Agriculture Department’s approval to vote on a marketing fee to counter increasing use of man-made composite materials like laminates for flooring, doors and other parts of new homes. Source: The Wall Street Journal Australian firefighting reinforcements head to Canada
Australian firefighters flew to Canada earlier this week to help the country's emergency services battle more than 400 bushfires burning in three provinces. The fires in Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan cover more than 1.3 million hectares and 102 Australian firefighters and logistics specialists are en-route to provide a "surge capacity" to help the Canadians. Joe Buffone, the Victorian state response controller, said Canada and Australia were some of the most fire-prone areas in the world. The two countries have shared a "strong relationship" for 15 years, Mr Buffone told 774 ABC Melbourne, with Australian firefighters travelling to Canada three times since 2009. "We have a formal agreement [with Canada] to provide firefighters," he said. Mr Buffone said the Canadian fire season had started early and was predicted to continue throughout the summer period. "Their resources are stretched so it's the ability to pretty much have that surge capacity," he said. "They've actually drawn from South Africa, Mexico and the United States as well." About 40 per cent of those taking part in the mission are in management positions and 60 per cent are field-based and come from organisations like the Metropolitan Fire Brigade, the Country Fire Authority and Emergency Management Victoria. There are 45 firefighters from Victoria, 32 from New South Wales, 12 from Western Australia, five from ACT, four from Tasmania, three from Queensland and one from South Australia.  Real-time production planning tools for sawmills
Modern day sawmill machine centres collect vast amounts of information about
logs, lumber, breakdown solutions, downtime, productivity and more. However,
more technology has not made life any simpler for mill managers. In fact, it has
become more difficult to keep track of whether the technologies are being
utilized
properly or not, especially as machines are now much too fast for visual
inspection.
Current machine-level optimisers are applied to machine centres but they lack a coordinating "command centre" that ensures they are working in unison to maximize sawmill production. Opportunities exist to utilize this information to identify problems and to improve production and value recovery in real-time. A current project from the Canadian research organisation, FPInnovations set out to develop real-time production planning tools for sawmills to evaluate the current state of production and to identify and rectify production issues quickly. Two software tools have been developed to date: a real-time target volume monitoring tool, and a real-time historic production tracking tool. Further details can be found from FPInnovations. A range of other new tools that can be used by local sawmills to improve machine centre productivity will be outlined to New Zealand and Australian companies as part of the WoodTECH 2015 – Sawing, Scanning and Mill Optimization series being run in September. WoodTECH 2015 runs in Melbourne, Australia on 16-17 September and again in Rotorua, New Zealand on 22-23 September. Remember, in order to get as many of your production and operational staff through to the programme, a special limited "2 for 1" registration deal has been set up which finishes next Friday, Friday 24 July. The full programme for each venue can be found on the event website, www.woodtech.events. NZ carbon market hots upAfter reporting last week on the NZ Government setting its new climate change targets to lower greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, the New Zealand carbon market was reported to be hotting up with rising prices and volumes. In one big deal, up to 1 million tonnes of carbon credits are being offered by forest owners via the carbon trader OM Financial reports Radio New Zealand News.The offer consists of a 200,000 tonnes initially, followed by another 800,000 tonnes if the price is right. One million tonnes would be ten times the typical daily turnover of OM Financial. To achieve these targets, greenhouse gas emitters such as petrol companies will be required to either reduce emissions or buy more credits from carbon-absorbing sectors like forestry. Senior OM Financial executive Nigel Brunel said the Government initiative had had some impact but it was not the main factor. "I certainly think the announcement by the Government yesterday of its target has had some impact on the market," he said. "But it is just another ingredient in the overall market and the biggest fundamental is it is a domestic-only scheme - emitters have to buy and prices have been rising." Mr Brunel said cheap overseas units were no longer available, and that strengthened the hand of local suppliers like foresters. This has pushed New Zealand carbon credits from $1.40 a tonne in 2013 to around $7 now. Check out pricing by clicking here. Radio New Zealand News A robot wants to build your house in just two days
A West Australian company has a robot they say can lay 1,000 bricks per hour and build the frame of an average house in under two days. The robot is still in prototype stage, but Fastbrick Robotics is hoping to bring a commercial machine onto the market within the next couple of years, Mike Pivac, CEO of Fastbrick Robotics, told Mashable Australia. The robot, Hadrian, was named after the ancient Roman emperor Hadrian who had a fad for construction. "He built a lot of walls for the Romans," Pivac said. "We also intend on building a lot of walls." The technology was developed by Mark Pivac, an aeronautic and mechanical engineer, and the company's chief technical officer. With more than AU$7 million spent in research and development, Hadrian is able to take a pack of bricks, and handle, process and lay them without human intervention. A 3D computer aided design file ensures the machine cuts, routes and lays the bricks to a high level of accuracy using a 28 metre telescopic boom. Hadrian can handle almost any size of brick on the market today, Pivac said. From one set position, it can even take into account the routing of channels for the electrical and plumbing structures that need to be laid in the wall, as well as windows and doors. Hadrian could dramatically cut the construction time of the average house. A standard house takes around 15,000 bricks to build, and usually about five to six weeks to complete with traditional labour, Pivac said, while Hadrian can build a house from slab to cap height — when the roof trusses go on — in two days. If successful, this would significantly cut down on construction costs. Pivac doesn't think Fastbrick Robotics will see too much resistance to the super-industrious robot from the building industry. "They see the bricklaying process as a real bottleneck," he said. "The construction process needs to be made more efficient." Source: mashable.com NZ firefighters to help combat Canadian wildfiresSixteen firefighters from the country’s rural fire authorities flew to Canada this week to help contain fires raging in the state of Alberta. National Rural Fire Officer Kevin O'Connor said the firefighters left Auckland for Vancouver on Tuesday before transferring to Edmonton, Alberta, to start what is expected to be a five-week deployment.Mr O’Connor said the deployment followed a request from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre last week. The team, drawn from rural fire authorities around the country, would provide frontline support to local firefighters. “Our people have a range of skills in high demand during lengthy firefighting operations,” he said. “These include logistics, planning, finance, ferrying supplies into remote locations and the use of aircraft.” About 800,000 hectares of forest are burning across the states of Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Colombia, as well as in neighbouring Alaska. New Zealand previously lent support to Canadian authorities in August 2009 during a serious outbreak of wildfires. New Zealand firefighters have also helped their counterparts in Australia nine times and their American counterparts five times in the past 15 years. Source: Scoop Researchers look at machine stability for steep slope harvesting
Steep terrain harvesting can be expensive and have high safety risks.
Mechanised ground-based machines are increasingly being used on steeper
slopes to decrease harvesting costs and improve safety by removing the
manual tasks of tree felling and choking. Recently, researchers set out to
determine whether the slope that the machine was operating on was the same
as the actual slope of the machine. Slope measuring equipment was attached to 22 forest machines to capture real-time measurements of machine slope. 18 studies were completed in pine plantations in New Zealand, and two were carried out in Austria and Norway respectively. Actual terrain slope was calculated using GIS. The machines evaluated were grouped into one of four machine types; felling, shovelling, skidder or “European”. The “European” machines were purpose-built steep terrain machines, whereas the New Zealand felling and shovelling machines were modified excavators. Interestingly, all the machines studied operated on slopes that exceeded the New Zealand Approved Code of Practice guideline of 17 and 22° slope for these machines. The New Zealand-based machines exceeded the guidelines more frequently, and by a greater amount, than the European-based machines. The results showed that the relationship between machine slope and terrain slope was poor for all machines. This indicates that the terrain slope does not accurately predict the actual slope of the machine. This means that terrain slope is not sufficient on its own for planning purposes, but other aspects such as the specific operator, ground conditions and the machine itself need to be considered. For more information check out the latest issue of R&D Works.  Canada launches forest industry transformation report
Greg Rickford, Canada's Minister of Natural Resources and Minister for the
Federal Economic Development Initiative for Northern Ontario, last week hosted
provincial and territorial forest ministers, as well as leaders from the forest
industry and research institutions from across Canada, at the National Forest
Innovation Summit. Participants affirmed the ongoing need for industry
transformation and built consensus on next steps to increase jobs and growth
in the forestry sector. Over two days of discussions, participants acknowledged the efforts of the Canadian forest industry to unite through a challenging economic period, while emphasising the need for action in pursuit of the next wave of transformation by forest sector stakeholders across governments, industry, academia and research organisations. With the release of the Kenora Declaration on Forest Innovation, organisations committed to advancing the commercialisation of new products and technologies in the forest sector, ensuring that the industry continues to generate jobs and prosperity for Canadians. The Declaration underscores the importance of collaborating to enhance market-driven investment and mobilising the best talent and technologies from the forest sector. Minister Rickford also announced the release of the Investments in Forest Industry Transformation Performance Report (2010–2014). The Investments in Forest Industry Transformation (IFIT) program has played a pivotal role in supporting technology transformation in the Canadian forest industry, helping it become more economically competitive and environmentally sustainable. The $100-million IFIT program leveraged additional investments of $260 million from public and private sector partners to advance forest sector innovation. Quick Facts: - Economic Action Plan 2015 commits $86 million to extend the Forest Innovation Program to help commercialise new products, and the Expanding Market Opportunities Program to develop new markets for Canadian wood products. - Projects supported by the IFIT program will create $66 million in new revenues for participating companies. - By reducing the risk associated with new technologies, the IFIT program encourages a broader adoption of technologies across the industry and supports forest industry transformation by opening the door to a more diversified portfolio of products and markets. - As a result of the program's success, Economic Action Plan 2014 invested an additional $90.4 million in the program. - Since 2007, the Government of Canada made unprecedented investments of $1.8 billion in the transformation of the forest industry. EWPAA appoint new CEO
The team at the Engineered Wood Products Association of Australasia
(EWPAA) is delighted that Dave Gover will take up the appointment of CEO in early September. EWPAA President, Mr Brendan Smith, said that "Dave is the right person to build on the strong history of success of the Association”. Dave hails from Gore in Southland, New Zealand and has been involved with the Industry for most of his life. On completion of his schooling he studied Forestry Engineering at the University of Canterbury, and then worked as Development Engineer for Carter Holt Harvey Engineered Wood Products based at the Kinleith plywood mill, and providing technical support to the New Zealand sales team. Following a brief secondment at Nangwarry in South Australia, he was involved in commissioning the Marsden Point LVL plant in New Zealand where he was responsible for establishing process quality control systems, product testing, and product certification. He also had responsibility for ironing out operational issues with the continuous LVL press. Having commissioned one LVL plant, Dave wanted to try commissioning another, and with his family moved to Perth as Plant Manager for Wesbeam. After four years in the west, his family was looking for a more rural lifestyle and moved to Heyfield, Victoria to take up the role of Operations Manager with ITC in the Southern Hemisphere’s largest Hardwood sawmill. ITC was purchased by Gunns and Dave was involved in helping the operation through some difficult times. For the last three years the operation has been owned by Australian Sustainable Hardwoods, and Dave has been involved with developing and commercialising a range of new laminated hardwood products. Project launched to 3D Print Houses with cellulose
Cellulose — the most abundant organic polymer on Earth. It is found in the cell walls of green plants as well as within many different forms of algae. Cellulose is even secreted by some types of bacteria. While the construction industry today depends a great deal on the use of wood and wood products, researchers in Sweden may be able to change the entire landscape of construction via a unique 3D printing technology, if things go as planned. It’s been announced that a collaborative project has been formed, called the +Project. With recent funding raised from the EU Structural Funds, in the amount of 17.6 million SEK (approximately $2.1 million), the project is now worth over 35.3 million SEK (approximately $4.25 million). The +Project, which is based at Sliperiet at Umeå Arts Campus, a part of Umeå University, aims to 3D print full-scale cellulose based material, with an ultimate goal of 3D printing cellulose houses. The +Project looks to target industries within the wood and construction sectors, as well as within design, architecture and even IT. It has goals of producing cellulose-based 3D printable materials which can be used to print everything from walls within a home, to simple weather-stripping, doors and even entire houses. The +Project is slated to run until sometime in 2018, at which time a World Expo will be held. Ideas can be shared, and hopefully if all goes as planned, we will begin to see homes being 3D printed out of the world’s most abundant organic polymer,in the very near future. More >> GPC second largest log export operation in AustraliaThe Gladstone Ports Corporation in Queensland now has the second largest log export operation in Australia, processing one shipment per month with a new woodchipping facility. The new log and woodchip is a collaborative effort to salvage timber plantations that were impacted in the Category 5 Tropical Cyclone Marcia earlier this year. Thousands of hectares of trees were left wind-thrown and damaged, and needed to be salvaged as soon as possible.GPC has been working closely with HQ Plantations to finalise a contract to commence export of the damaged trees and woodchip from Auckland Point. The woodchip operations include chipping, stockpiling and export, and will be coordinated by HQ Plantations. The first shipment of 38,000 tonnes of logs was sent to China last week. It is envisaged that woodchip exports will commence in September. Source: Gladstone Observer Trees trained to grow into furniture
Much of our furniture is made from timber. The wood to make that furniture has to be harvested from a felled tree which is then milled, sawn, planed, sanded, put back together with glue and screws, and finished. Wouldn't it be easier to avoid most of these steps and simply coax a tree to grow into a piece of furniture? That way, it would be one-piece, inherently strong, and could potentially last many years longer than assembled furniture. Gavin Munro thought this too, and about a decade ago set about achieving this goal. He now creates furniture by cajoling trees to grow into one-piece items that are not only inherently practical, they are also eminently beautiful. Munro is a man with a great deal of patience. Over a period of between four to eight years, he trains trees to grow over plastic formers to become chairs; carefully interlacing their branches to form a solid, intricate unit. Each tendril is slowly and deliberately coerced into creating entwined legs, stiles, rails, and stretchers that create a fully-formed piece of furniture. Of course, to support his business (and probably help retain his sanity) in the intervening years between tree chairs, he is also creating quicker-growing mirror surrounds and lamp shades for sale before the chairs reach maturity. Though, when we say "quicker" these, too, take more time than the average person would call fast; the standard tree in Munro’s repertoire – the willow – still takes several years to grow big enough for a mirror surround. To create this fascinating, one-off furniture, Munro has been slowly bending and shaping trees over plastic formers for nearly nine years now. Another year or so away from a large harvest of fully-formed furniture, Munro has still managed to produce the aforementioned mirror surrounds, some lamp shades and one or two prototype larger pieces to prove the concept. But, with every 100 trees grown there are an attendant 1,000 branches that grow with them that must be shaped, coaxed, and cared for and, in turn, a further 10,000 shoots that must be pruned at precisely the right time to preserve the health of the tree while maintaining the desired shape. It is not work for the flighty or the impatient. Along with the willow (salix viminalis) that Munro and his company, "Full Grown", started with, he is now branching out into other species, including Ash, Sycamore, Hazel, Crab Apple, Sessile Oak and Red Oak. This inclusion of new timber types means that other products can be grown to take advantage of different grain, hardness, finish, and texture. A fully-grown, one-piece table is just one such item that may be fashioned from one or more of these new sorts of timber. Not quite yet available for sale, Munro is in discussions with a few galleries, with the first commercially-available chairs expected to be ready for sale by around the middle of 2017. Other pieces – such as the geometric lamps and mirror frames are expected to be made available sometime late in 2016. Each piece will be a unique heirloom for generations to come, and duly marked with a Certificate of Provenance. Source: Gizmag, Full Grown Jobs
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...and one to end the week on...the flower show
Two little old ladies were sitting on a park bench outside the local town hall where a flower show was in progress. And on that note, have a great weekend. Wrap up warm. For the Kiwis, snow is on the way - again. Brand PartnersOur Partners & Sponsors Friday Offcuts is made possible through the generous support of the following companies.
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