Chemical Engineering October 2010 - 56

Shaft
Alignment
& Geometric
Measurement
Figure 5. Since
the transition, Columbia
Forest Products
has assumed more
responsibility for
onsite mixology and
gained more control
over the quality and
consistency of its
end-products
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catalyst and a wheat-flour or pecanshell
filler in a low-viscosity batch.
With the changeover, each plant
assumed much greater responsibility
for onsite mixology (Figure 5). Tanker
trucks still arrive daily from a resin
supplier - now, delivering the soy-adhesive
cross-linker. But today, instead
of simply receiving a readymade adhesive
resin, plant production teams
make their own adhesive onsite using
food-grade soy flour from Cargill, the
cross-linker from Ashland, and a variety
of other additions.
This shift has brought about three
significant changes in the processing
culture at each plant.
1. Knowledge base. Columbia Forest
Products developed a strong base
of company-wide mixing expertise and
operational expertise at each plant.
The company's adhesive technology
team, along with the local expertise
developed at each plant, has made Columbia
Forest Products stronger, more
versatile and more innovative at the
process level. Process improvement
never stops.
2. Ongoing partnerships. The company
strengthened its ongoing partnerships
with key suppliers. By leveraging
its resources, Columbia Forest
Products has greatly increased its
collective ability to innovate and continue
improving its products.
3. Controlling the company's destiny.
By becoming a more active partner
in production, Columbia Forest
Products acquired greater control over
the company's future success.
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Bottom-line results
Columbia Forest Products' feedstock
changeover concluded late last year. Although
the company has now produced
nearly 40-million hardwood-plywood
panels using the soy-based adhesive,
process optimization continues.
Panels produced with this method
56 ChemiCal engineering www.Che.Com oCtober 2010
are completely free of volatile organic
compounds (VOCs) from the adhesive
during production and thereafter. They
contribute no added VOCs to the atmosphere,
whether in the communities
that surround production plants, in the
workshops where finished cabinets and
furniture are made, or in homes, offices
and hospitals - anywhere end-products
using these panels are installed. Overall
plant emissions have been reduced
by up to 90%. VOCs detected in the ambient
atmosphere inside the plants have
declined similarly.
■
Edited by Rebekkah Marshall
Authors
Steve Pung is vice president
of technology at Columbia Forest
Products. (Email: spung@
columbiaforestproducts.com.)
He received his B.S. degree
in Wood Science from Mississippi
State University. At
Columbia Forest Products he
applies more than 30 years
of experience in decorative
wood panel manufacturing,
with roles in industrial engineering,
plant engineering, project management,
plant management and product development.
Rick Hammers is a project
manager in the Technology
Group of Columbia Forest
Products. (Email: RHammers
@columbiaforestproducts.
com.) He has more than 18
years of experience in the
production of various types of
wood panels. Hammers has
held positions of lab technician,
technical director, plant
manager, and new product
development coordinator for leading domestic
and international panel manufacturers. He has
a B.S. in industrial technology from the University
of Nebraska, Omaha.
Ken Langhorn, Technical
Director at Charles Ross &
Son Company (710 Old Willets
Path, Hauppauge, NY
11788; Phone: 800-243-7677;
Email: klanghorn@mixers.
com; Website: www.mixers.
com), has published many
articles on mixing and blending
technology. Formerly an
R&D specialist at Ross, he
holds multiple patents for
innovations in high shear and high viscosity
mixing. As manager of the Ross Test & Development
Center, he oversees a large program of
testing and process optimization for customers,
along with operations in the company's adjacent
analytical laboratory.
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VIDEOS
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Chemical Engineering October 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering October 2010
