OSU, business team on compressed wood technology

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A lab machine for making VTM wood at OSU's Green Building Material Lab, an Oregon BEST shared-user facility.

A Philomath company may benefit from its role in helping an Oregon State University researcher leap from the lab to the commercial market with a new technology that could make inroads for the wood products industry.

Corvallis Tool Company, an equipment manufacturer, has been involved in researching what's called Viscoelastic Thermal Compression — or VTC — for several years. It's a technology spurred by Fred Kamke, professor of wood science and engineering and OSU's Jeld-Wen chair of wood-based composite products, as he tested a long-simmering thesis.

Ten years ago Kamke found, through unrelated work, that hot-pressing wood — though thought to weaken its characteristics — actually added strength. He began exploring the concept as a means of allowing faster-growing, softer woods to be used for producting sturdier veneer and hardwood floor products.

"I realized there was this company right in our backyard that could be a big help," said Kamke.

Corvallis Tool Company has been in the Corvallis area since 1983 and has about 55,000 square feet of manufacturing capacity in Philomath, employing between 20 and 110 people, depending on demand. The company designs, builds and installs machinery for wood products manufacturing plants, most of which have application in making plywood and laminated veneer lumber. (Laminated veneer lumber comes from peeling a tree and using the resulting layers, along with laminate, to make lumber instead of sawing directly out of the log.)

The company first helped Kamke by providing a conceptual engineering design for a VTC machine as he applied for early funding to build a device to test his theory. Later, Corvallis Tool Company bought a used press and refurbished it so Kamke could test the VTC process on a small scale in OSU's Green Buildings Materials Lab.

Now, Corvallis Tool Company will have a new role in testing the market potential of the VTC process.

Kamke recently received funding to help make VTC products a commercial reality. He was awarded $40,000 from the Oregon Built Environment & Sustainable Technologies Center, or Oregon BEST, from grants used to help fast-track the state's most promising renewable energy and sustainable products and technology to market.

Kamke also received $75,000 from OSU’s Venture Development Fund.

The money will allow him to develop a set of prototype products in his lab and to direct Corvallis Tool Company to develop a processing rate, production yield and an analysis of market cost over the next six months, beginning this week. Corvallis Tool Company will also be responsible for providing engineering designs for three different types of machines that could be used for VTC technology.

"Bottom line is that if it doesn't pencil out dollar-wise, then these customers will not want to invest in this technology," said Ed Landis, vice president of production and acting general manager at Corvallis Tool Company.

Should the idea prove cost-effective, however, Corvallis Tool Company will be well positioned to meet new demands for VTC machinery from customers.

"Because we've been involved on the front end — we don't have any guarantees because of the work we've done with OSU and Fred — but we would be out ahead of other competitors to build the machinery," said Landis. "It's certainly a new product line for us, and it dovetails with a lot of the veneer handling that we've done in the past."

If cost-effective, VTC technology would provide wood products plants with a solution to a persistent problem. The building industry relies heavily on veneers to construct support beams and trusses in buildings, but a lack of top-strength material is an ongoing challenge.

The VTC process would allow wood products plants with proper equipment to compress softer veneer into high-quality, strong veneer.

"We are getting a lot of interest and the big question is, 'What’s it going to cost me?' So it's a difficult sell when you tell somebody that we're going to take 1,000 cubic feet of veneer and we're going to convert it to 500 cubic feet of veneer. Because that's what we do, we compress it," said Kamke.

Looking ahead, he said, "the value of the high-quality veneer has to outweigh that loss of volume" for VTC technology to move forward.

"I think this has some real potential," said Landis. "You're really taking some of these (tree) species that are not commercially viable today and you have the ability to turn them into a more commercially viable product and add value to that product."

Lee van der Voo, lvdvoo*at*gmail.com, is a freelance writer for Sustainable Business Oregon.