INATIOI MAY FOr The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, May 7, 1997 - C3 | a ee WEEK! eee L997. Veneer slicing plant cranks up ‘Re-tooled local mill is ultimate in value-added >VENEER SLICING begins this week at Forwest Veneer Inc. in Terrace. « It’s the first mill of its kind in B.C, cand one that takes value-added to new heights in the northwest. + About 25 people will be employed ‘al the newly retooled mill on Hwy 16 -West at Frank St, and company presi- dent Mike Thorpe says that number could double to 50 if a second shift is wadded by year’s end. . ‘The equipment bas been arriving ‘for the past four months and the real ‘push is on to complete it all,’” he said. » Training will take several weeks, With the plant hitting full veneer pro- duction by late June or July. **The challenge is to get it right in terms of quality and supply,’’ Thorpe said, ‘‘Do il right and make it stable.” The raw material —- high grade wood — will come fom all comers of B.C., Thorpe said. That means the highly specialized value-added mill won't be at the mercy of northwest forest industry troubles, ‘“We don’t need huge volumes of commodity to keep the plant run- ning,’’ Thorpe said. Nearly half of the mill’s product will go to markets in Europe, with the rest going to Japan and the U.S. **We have the first three months of production pre-sold,”’ Thorpe added. Forwest Veneer Inc. is jointly owned by Forwest Wood Specialties — a partnership of Thorpe’s firm Four Star Trading and West Fraser — and Triumph Veneer. Triumph and Forwest bad been separately pursuing the idea of devel- oping veneer slicing plants, ‘We decided to come together and join our strengths rather than make competing plants,’’ Thorpe explained. Right now the plant is going to stick with veneer production, he added. But further down the road the mill may take its own veneers and lay it over cheaper wood to create other products here, The veneer plant workers are organized by the IWA and are paid about 75 per cent of what sawmill workers get, Thorpe said, in line with similar remanufacturing mills throughout B.C, It's a relief to see the plant re-start for the mill workers, most of whom have been off work for about seven months since Forwest shut down and its machinery was dismantled, HERE’S HOW IT WORKS m@ Select spruce, hemlock and douglas fir logs ‘come to the mill from around the province - [i The logs are quartered and then fed Into three ‘large “conditioning chests” just outside the mill. Inside the chests, 140 degree Fahrenheit water is ‘sprayed on the logs. They sit there for 24 to 48 ‘hours to absorb molsture. “You want to really ‘soak It to make It easier to slice,” says mill super- ‘visor Brent Kluss. “It conditions the wood,” mi The log quarters, known as ‘‘iltches” are fed ‘Inside the mill. Each filtch Is gripped by the slic- ‘Ing machinery. A blade apparatus moves up and ‘down at a rate of as much as 60 cycles per sec- ‘ond. With each motion It shaves off a 0.5 mil- ‘Ilmetre layer off the log face. + The veneer plies up on an assembly line and Is then carted to a large double-fed dryer unit. After two to three minutes Inside, all the molsture put Into the logs Is sucked back out and’ dry veneer emerges at the other end. : Mf The veneer then Is trimmed to size, graded ‘and then packaged. Much of the mill will ba used to warehouse the product, because It's too valu- able and susceptible. to the weather to be stock- piled outside.” ~ i The veneer will be trucked to Vancouver to a central marketing point and then sent to « River HELICOPTERS INC. Contract & Charter Services Serving Forestry & Mining Serving The Northwest | Office: 250-638-1414 1 Fax: 250-638-0888 , . 5412 Highway 16West, Terrace VALLEY OXYGEN OXYGEN - ACETYLENE - SPECIALTY GASES WELDING ELECTRODES & WIRES CUTTING APPARATUS - SAFETY SUPPLIES WELDING MACHINES - CULVERTS “P.O. Box 698 ae "DEPOTS IN: HOUSTON, SMITHERS, KITWANGA, DEASE LAKE, STEWART, PORT CLEMENTS, SANDSPIT Miller © = 1 FINAL PREPARATIONS wera underway last week for the startup of Forwest Veneer Inc.'s veneer-slicing plant in Terrace, expected this week. The mill is the old Forwest Wood Specialties mill at Hwy 16 and Frank St, retooled to produce veneer, That's mill supervisor Brent Kluss (above) inspecting slicing machine parts that grip quartered logs while the veneer is being sliced from them. At left, a welder works on the conveyor that brings quartered logs into the mill. Ram Tough! Tough country calls for a tough truck, the all new Dodge Ram is what a full-size pick-up — a work truck ought to be: functional on the job and com- fortable for getting there and back. CLUB CABS NOW IN STOCK! 1997 Dodge Ram Terrace Chrysler... growing with Terrace’s #1 industry - - Forestry TERRACE “x " CHRYSLER 1-800-313-7187 635-7187 4916 Hwy. 16. Dealer#5958