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New LP plant produces first OSB
Doffitt, the plant manager, said, "It was the smoothest startup I have ever been associated with." The mill is not producing this week while some adjustments and fine tunings are being made. Doffitt said production would start back this Saturday and hopefully gear up rapidly. By June he hopes to be producing at capacity, estimated at 750 million square feet annually when the plant was announced in 2005. The project has been special to Doffitt who said he has been involved since the initial announcement three years ago and even before that, with some site reviews and design work for the proposed mill. Oriented strand board, better known as OSB, is made from wood strands arranged in crossoriented layers and bound with heat-cured adhesives. It looks a lot like plywood and shares many of the strength and performance characteristics of plywood. OSB is a favorite of builders and contractors. The current slowed housing industry and slumped economy aren't good, Doffitt admitted when questioned. However, he stated what he said he has told his employees: That LP can't dictate what the market does and it can't change a slowed housing industry. LP can control its costs in manufacturing through such a modern and high-tech mill as the Clarke County facility, Doffitt explained. He said the new plant is an efficient operation and that makes it even more valuable at a time when markets are off. He stressed that the new mill will operate and will be an asset to LP and to the area. Doffitt stepped through the process of making OSB board. Edward James of Jackson makes the short 20-mile or so drive to the LP plant every day and sits in a "Star Trek" looking command chair to oversee the beginning of the manufacturing process. James sits about three stories up, overlooking conveyors that bring the debarked pine logs into the mill where "stranders"- sophisticated saws- cut the wood into exacting strips, or strands, that will make up an OSB board. James keeps an eye on the busy scene from his high perch and is assisted by a number of video monitors too. Doffitt estimated that most of the 140 or so employees live within a 50-mile radius of the plant. He praised the workers for catching on to the technology of the mill quickly and for their good work ethics. The strands go into the huge plant building where they are mixed with adhesives and then fed into an assembly line to begin the board-making process. Special machine guides help to "orient" four layers of strands as they pass along the line. Each layer is turned or "oriented" in a different direction. Doffitt said the process that gives the board its name also gives it strength and durability. The orientation is precise and controlled and the strands are not allowed to randomly orient, Doffitt explained. Huge presses heated to 400 degrees with a pressure of 3,000 pounds per square inch press the layers together into molded sheets. The sheets continue down the line and are trimmed and cut as needed and bundled. Samples are pulled from the line on a regular basis for quality checks, Doffitt explained. The board will be shipped out of the plant by truck and by rail. A new highway ties the plant site, just south of Thomasville, with Highway 43 and a rail spur connects to the nearby Norfolk Southern rail line. The plant is located on several hundred acres of the larger North Clarke Industrial Park. The land was purchased by the county for the LP facility but there is room for other smaller industries or service businesses in the park as well. Offices for Doffitt and others of the plant's management team are in a part of the main plant building. Doffitt said LP doesn't want to separate management and administrative personnel into a separate building. Opening a door that led directly into the plant, Doffitt said he liked the closeness too.
Doffitt said an official opening would be held later, probably sometime in April.
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