At the IFA in Berlin this week, LG is set to unveil a “wearable robot” exoskeleton designed to help workers take the load off their legs. LG has been pushing the robot angle hard lately. Last year the electronics company released robots to help out at home and in public places like airports, and earlier this year it followed up …

Kaingaroa Village rests in the heart of the Kaingaroa Forest just South of Rotorua in New Zealand’s central North Island. Once a thriving forestry town of almost 4000, changes to ownership of cutting rights from NZ Forest service to Tasman Forestry and other corporate investors, along with the advent of heavily mechanised harvesting methods in the 1980’s saw local employment …

A consortium of forestry companies has begun the development of a high-tech optimisation facility aimed at maximising the value of resource handled on the Eden and East Gippsland regions. The new development at Edrom Road will be designed with the sustainable recurring 100-year resource profile in mind. The consortium partners, including Boral who will provide technical and operational support, see …

Festo has developed an online tool to help companies assess their readiness for Industry 4.0 adoption. Called Industry 4.0 Quick Check, it enables companies to identify their current Industry 4.0 maturity level and what their next training and development priorities should be. As digital transformation gathers pace, more and more companies are making the transition to Industry 4.0 working. However, …

US based Freres Lumber Company says it has achieved Mass Plywood Panels (MPP) certification under the APA – The Engineered Wood Association’s ANSI/APA PRG 320 standard. The product is the first Mass Timber Panel constructed entirely out of Structural Composite Lumber (SCL) worldwide. The company says this makes it much more cost effective than CLT (cross-laminated timber) options. Mass Timber …

A surge in lumber prices and modest increases in sawlog costs have resulted in record profits for many lumber companies in North America and Europe in 2018, reports the Wood Resource Quarterly. Sawlog costs, the largest cost component when manufacturing lumber, have gone up much more slowly than lumber prices in many countries during the past year, resulting in substantial …

USNR have always been one of the main exhibitors at the Portland Woodworking Show. Over the past 30 years, USNR has exhibited at the trade show that is now formally called the Timber Processing & Energy Expo, but is more commonly known as simply “the Portland Show.” USNR have let their customers know that the company has decided to skip …

BID Group founder Brian Fehr has been named to the Order of British Columbia. He will be among 14 people who will receive the province’s highest honour during a ceremony at Government House in Victoria on Sept. 20. His biography, as provided by the Honours and Awards Secretariat, tells a story of stunning achievement while also overcoming considerable adversity. It …

A new pilot program has been launched by Weathertex and Queensland University of Technology (QUT) to understand the chemical changes that take place during the production of external timber cladding. A collaboration between industry and academia, the intended outcome of the program is to identify a way of enhancing the commercial value of plant materials through their structure. Executive Chairman …

Preventive facility maintenance is important to prevent problems that can lead to the machine standing still. In many producing plants, technicians still document maintenance procedures such as sweeping up chips, changing filters or replacing lubricants in a laborious manner with pen and paper. Festo makes digital facility maintenance possible with Smartenance. The app helps with administration, reminds you to perform …

Integrated Australian forestry and timber processing company, Associated Kiln Driers (AKD) is pleased to confirm that it has signed an agreement with Carter Holt Harvey (CHH) to acquire all of the shares of Carter Holt Harvey Timber Pty Ltd (CHHT). CHHT owns CHH’s New South Wales sawmilling business. The major assets of the business comprise the Tumut sawmill and Gilmore …

The Red Stag Timber Company, which annually processes more than one million tonnes of logs at its Waipa mill, is using its waste wood as renewable fuel rather than trucking it to landfill and paying for its disposal – avoiding an annual power bill of up to NZ$1 million in the process. Although the mill, considered one of the largest …

Sydney-based Linx Cargo Care Group is planning to buy wood processor Pedersen Group for an undisclosed amount. The two have entered into a conditional purchase agreement and expect the deal to be completed in mid-August, Linx said in a statement. Rotorua-based Pedersen, owned by private equity firm Maui Capital, services the Kinleith and Kawerau mills in New Zealand, Norske Skog’s …

The next LIGNA is being staged from 27 to 31 May 2019, and its organizers, Deutsche Messe and the German Woodworking Machinery Manufacturers’ Association (VDMA Holzbearbeitungsmaschinen), have announced that exhibitor registrations are coming in at a very pleasing pace. While opening day is still about a year away, exhibition space at the world’s leading trade fair for machinery, plant and …

The front of SuitX’s East Bay headquarters is an empty room. No reception desk, no furniture — it’s about as unassuming as robotics office spaces get. For now, it’s a trial space, where perspective clients can try out the startup’s soft robotics exoskeletons in person, to see if they’ll fulfill their specific industrial or medical needs. Through one door is …

Tariffs of 25%t were levied on Chinese-manufactured woodworking machinery and panel processing equipment beginning Friday 6 July. It’s part of a trade battle being waged on several fronts by the Trump Administration, and which appears to be escalating as China retaliates with tariffs of its own – primarily on agricultural products, tobacco, and vehicles. The U.S. begins collecting (click for …

Plant manager Gabor Kiraly remembers the meeting a couple of years ago when he and his Austrian bosses learnt how severe the worker shortage in Hungary was about to become – it was, he said, a “shocking realization”. The unemployment rate in the western Hungarian town of Papa, where Hirtenberger Automotive Safety employs 725 people making products such as seat …

Tambo’s reopened sawmill is reviving the town’s fortunes after a million-dollar investment and seven years in mothballs. Queensland’s Minister for State Development, Manufacturing, Infrastructure and Planning Cameron Dick said the upgraded mill, which was backed by AU$262,250 from the Palaszczuk Government’s Building our Regions fund, has officially been opened. “This investment helped fund updating the mill, which is now supporting …

From a recent article by Russ Taylor, Managing Director of FEA Holdings – Canada Inc, he has outlined how the recent run on lumber prices has put big smiles on the faces of North American sawmill operators and lumber traders. Mill prices for all lumber species in North America have been trending higher since preliminary U.S. import duties began in …

Conception R.P, a Canadian company that designs and manufactures fingerjointing equipment has obtained the largest contract in its history, at $6.7 million CAD. The company announced the contract for a U.S. CLT manufacturer. “We are a small company in Quebec City, but our competition are the global giants in the equipment industry. We are very proud of what we accomplished,” …

A new mystery surface treatment developed by the CSIRO is set to enhance the viability and desirability of hardwood components in construction, by improving bond strength when adhesives and coatings are applied. In research funded by FWPA, the patented surface treatment significantly improves strength when bonding hardwoods together using polyurethane adhesives and increases the bonding capacity of timber and clear …

OneFortyOne has announced that the Wood Products team have been given approval to commence work on a new capital expenditure project worth approximately AU$14 million for the Jubilee Highway Sawmill in South Australia. The project will see the construction and commissioning of an additional 61 sorter bins for the site, all of which will be fabricated and installed by local …

Early last week the potential site for the Hermal Group’s new hard wood operation in Tasmania was being debated by the media. Late last week the announcement on the location was made. The Hermal Group on Thursday announced that an 80-hectare site in Hampshire will be the location of their AU$190 million Cross Laminated Plantation timber mill and production facility. …

The streak of record-high U.S. lumber prices caused offshore softwood lumber exports to the U.S. to expand rapidly in 2017 versus 2016 reports Russ Taylor, Managing Director of FEA Holdings – Canada Inc. The same trend is expected in 2018. In 2005, the U.S. imported a record volume of non-Canadian lumber — over 6.9 million m3. Following that, they plummeted, …

XLam has announced that it has now begun manufacturing Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) panels at its Wodonga site in Australia. “XLam is very excited to finally offer the building and construction industry a locally produced treated or non-treated CLT product”, said XLam CEO Gary Caulfield. “The opening of our state-of-the-art facility represents a significant milestone for our company and the …