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 Keeping the basics of a 25-year old OSB mill intact, LP added an LSL production plant. Not an easy makeover.When making $140 million worth of changes to a mill, it would be nice to think you could shut things down between start and startup.
Not so at the Louisiana Pacific (LP) mill in Houlton, Maine, which was recently transformed from an OSB facility to one that produces Laminated Strand Lumber (LSL).
The existing OSB line kept running well into the installation of the new LSL production line. (LSL is alternately called OSL, or Oriented Strand Lumber. They’re essentially the same products.) LP’s LSL will be marketed under the brand name LP® SolidStart® LSL.
Says Skip Cleary, Houlton Plant Manager, about the conversion project, “You have no idea when you start how many things are going to be affected. It’s not just the electronics, it’s move this pole, move the fire pond…there are a lot of challenges.”
But, on the plus side, there’s now a brand new LSL production line up and running, capable of producing 7.8 million cu. ft. of LSL annually, plus the older OSB line that was left intact. Cleary says he could start OSB production again “by flipping a switch.”
How tight was the project schedule?
“The OSB line continued to run until September, 2007 and the LSL line started up in January, 2008. We had one month to work the bugs out and produced our first LSL in March,” Cleary remembers.
Making LSL has processes in common with OSB, but a virtual walk through the mill identifies that major changes and upgrades were made throughout. Still, wherever possible, existing equipment was kept.
The company AJP revamped the woodyard, keeping the existing Nicholson debarker and the metal detector already installed, but an outside slasher deck was rebuilt to cut 9-foot logs instead of the 17-foot used for OSB.
“Since the optimum length of the flakes we use is 9 inches,” says Cleary, “we start with 9-foot logs and cut 3 feet at a time. It makes sense to work in increments of nine.”
The logs, 70 percent poplar and 30 percent other hardwood species, then go to new heated conditioning ponds for about 8 hours.
“It will be our first winter of operation so we don’t know yet what we’ll need to do to reach a consistent core temperature,” says Cleary. Maine weather can be unpredictable, but one thing is sure – it will get cold at some point.
Once the logs are ready – they’re at about 50 percent moisture by then – a Hood loader picks them up out of the water and places them on one of 2 Carmanah batch feeders which feeds them into the Carmanah long log flakers. These are both original equipment whose upgrades include new face gear, disposable knives instead of the former plate knives, and powerful 1000 hp motors.
“We’re making thicker flakes for LSL,” says Cleary, “and we need more consistent flake quality. The equipment has to be able to deliver.” |
