Roseburg Forest Products opens a new plant in Chester, South Carolina

Roseburg Forest Products opens its newly constructed Chester, South Carolina, engineered wood plant. When fully operational, the plant will employ approximately 145 people from the area, as the company says in the press release received by Lesprom Network. 

Located on Lancaster Highway, the plant is the most technologically advanced manufacturing facility of its kind and features the highest-capacity press in the world. 

Upon full production, the line will produce up to 285,000 m³ LVL per year, made possible by microwave preheating and continuous press technology. Dieffenbacher supplied the LVL press and the upstream 600 kW microwave, the most powerful preheating system of its type in LVL production. To produce high-quality LVL, the veneers are evenly heated to 60–90°C in the microwave over the entire mat thickness. 

The special design of the Dieffenbacher CPS press infeed means the distance the mat has to travel “without pressure” upon leaving the microwave until reaching the maximum pressing pressure is less than 2,500 mm. This prevents pre-curing of the resin. Fast-hardening glue can be used to increase production speed and capacity. In addition to boosting capacity, the ideal combination of microwave and CPS also enhances board quality. 

Compared to production on a multi-opening press, the continuously produced LVL boards have more consistent mechanical board properties and significantly lower thickness tolerances. Subsequent sanding is not necessary. For example, unsanded LVL boards can be used directly as scaffolding planks, and unsanded veneers can easily be pressed into high-quality boards. Dieffenbacher LVL technology enables board thicknesses of up to 120 mm and allows MUF adhesives to be used in the top veneer overlapping area. Boards with these properties have been produced in practice at Dieffenbacher plants at Nelson Pine in New Zealand and at Pacific Woodtech in the U.S.

The Chester facility will produce laminated veneer lumber (LVL) headers and beams used in residential and commercial construction. The project was first announced in early 2017 and the construction team broke ground later that same year. Roseburg did extensive research prior to choosing a location for the new plant, with criteria including market demand, raw materials availability and cost, and business climate front and center.