The tour was hosted by Rotarian Ryan Bushey. The history of the plant is that it was built between 1981 and 1982 to produce Oriented Strand Board or OSB which is a compressed super strong four by eight feet board that resembles plywood as it is about three quarters of an inch thick. There is also manufacturing of some flooring.
Typically such manufacturing facilities have a lifespan of around 25 years and then productivity can fall due to the age of the machinery. But reorganization has given the plant continued life.
In 2006, LP reinvented themselves and reorganized to make Laminated Strand Lumber or LSL. In 2007 there was a rebuild at a cost of $150 million to produce the LSL more efficiently. By 2008 with the collapse of the economy the mill fell from 162 to 62 employees. Thanks to an upturn in the economy and an increase in housing starts the mill is now at 140 employees and hiring another crew to add a fourth shift that will allow them to keep the plant running 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
There is only one competitor for LSL and that is Weyerhaeuser. LSL is now sold around the world and the demand is growing due to the consistency of the product. Each pallet of product is guaranteed to be straight and true, providing excellent load-bearing capacity. LP still makes the original OSB one week a month, producing LSL the other three weeks.
Safety is a top priority at LP and to date they have an excellent record. Fire is the main threat because of the machinery involved. The last fire they had was quickly dealt with thanks to quick response by the Houlton Fire Department and the surrounding man-made ponds that the fire department could draw from. As a community service the fire departments are allowed to draw from these ponds if there is a fire on private property nearby.
The process of the manufacturing begins when logs are delivered and inspected for quality control. The logs are cut to eight-foot lengths and put through a de-barker and placed in a pond to soak. A huge flaking machine chips the logs into strands and again places them in water. These strands are then dried and mixed with adhesive, oriented lengthwise and placed on a moving belt. They then go into a steam injection press to compact them into board and are then trimmed with a saw. These billets are then cooled and stacked for custom orders.
The boards are then placed on the saw line and cut anywhere from 48 to 64 feet and can be any thickness the customer desires. All logs are purchased under the Sustainable Forestry Initiative Standards. All waste is burned in giant furnaces that feed the necessary machinery and heat the building. Residual ash is used by farmers as potash fertilizer.
