News:
A new demonstration plant unveiled Friday [Dec. 12] at Mississippi State has the potential to stimulate alternative, profitable markets for small-diameter trees thinned from pine plantations.
Through a partnership with TimTek Australia Ltd., scientists at the university’s Forest and Wildlife Research Center will demonstrate technologies they hope will ultimately produce commercially viable engineered wood products from three- to eight-inch diameter southern yellow pines.
Following an international search, company officials earlier selected Mississippi State as a partner because of the university’s long-established and widely recognized composite wood product research program in the department of forest products.
Developed in Australia by the Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organization, the TimTek process forms high-strength, engineered lumber using small-diameter trees that are crushed into strands. Coated with an exterior-type adhesive and dried, the strands then are formed to desired shapes in a specialized steam-injection hot press.
Recently completed with $1 million funding from the state Land, Water and Timber Resources Board, the plant is located on the western edge of campus, near the intersection of Blackjack Road and Locksley Way.
During opening ceremonies, TimTek representatives and MSU President Charles Lee joined Lester Spell, state commissioner of agriculture and commerce, in emphasizing the significance of the collaboration to the state’s economy.
“This plant and the technology being developed here once again demonstrate Mississippi State’s desire to help stimulate competitive markets for Mississippi landowners and the state’s forest industry and to help create new value-added products for Mississippi manufacturers,” Lee said.
Spell, observing that Mississippi has more than 18 million acres of forest land, said the partnership “will be good for our state, especially for private landowners who hold about 70 percent of the state’s forest lands and are seeking new revenues for their small-diameter trees.” A member of the Land, Water and Timber Resources Board, he praised TimTek for exemplifying the kind of innovative project the board supports.
Company director Walter Jarck said TimTek’s product “is a unique, long-fiber structural engineered lumber with high-strength properties of select-grade sawn timber. It can be produced in lengths and cross sections greater than can be achieved from the largest logs available.”
Since the process can be incorporated into existing plants, owners of wood-processing operations have the potential to realize immediate economic benefits, Jarck added.
Further research will both determine the strength values of the product and test the product to help gain building code acceptance. Initial examinations in MSU’s forest products department indicate that the engineered lumber has the potential to compete favorably with beams and timbers used in residential and commercial construction.
Through a partnership with TimTek Australia Ltd., scientists at the university’s Forest and Wildlife Research Center will demonstrate technologies they hope will ultimately produce commercially viable engineered wood products from three- to eight-inch diameter southern yellow pines.
Following an international search, company officials earlier selected Mississippi State as a partner because of the university’s long-established and widely recognized composite wood product research program in the department of forest products.
Developed in Australia by the Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organization, the TimTek process forms high-strength, engineered lumber using small-diameter trees that are crushed into strands. Coated with an exterior-type adhesive and dried, the strands then are formed to desired shapes in a specialized steam-injection hot press.
Recently completed with $1 million funding from the state Land, Water and Timber Resources Board, the plant is located on the western edge of campus, near the intersection of Blackjack Road and Locksley Way.
During opening ceremonies, TimTek representatives and MSU President Charles Lee joined Lester Spell, state commissioner of agriculture and commerce, in emphasizing the significance of the collaboration to the state’s economy.
“This plant and the technology being developed here once again demonstrate Mississippi State’s desire to help stimulate competitive markets for Mississippi landowners and the state’s forest industry and to help create new value-added products for Mississippi manufacturers,” Lee said.
Spell, observing that Mississippi has more than 18 million acres of forest land, said the partnership “will be good for our state, especially for private landowners who hold about 70 percent of the state’s forest lands and are seeking new revenues for their small-diameter trees.” A member of the Land, Water and Timber Resources Board, he praised TimTek for exemplifying the kind of innovative project the board supports.
Company director Walter Jarck said TimTek’s product “is a unique, long-fiber structural engineered lumber with high-strength properties of select-grade sawn timber. It can be produced in lengths and cross sections greater than can be achieved from the largest logs available.”
Since the process can be incorporated into existing plants, owners of wood-processing operations have the potential to realize immediate economic benefits, Jarck added.
Further research will both determine the strength values of the product and test the product to help gain building code acceptance. Initial examinations in MSU’s forest products department indicate that the engineered lumber has the potential to compete favorably with beams and timbers used in residential and commercial construction.
About TimTek:
The TimTek pilot plant operation began in 2003 and has been successful in producing more than 150 beams. Equipment has been purchased and installed to perform numerous test on the TimTek product. Initial results indicate that beams are testing better than necessary to pass all appropriate industry tests. Scientists have produced beams with a modulus of elasticity—the measurement of stiffness that determines the deflection from a load—in excess of 2.0 million psi. Similar tests for modulus of rupture—the force necessary to break a specimen of specified width and thickness expressed in pounds-force per square inch—have produced values in excess of 5500 psi.
Contact:
P.O. Box 1981
Clarkesville, Georgia 30523
Phone: 706-754-0422
Fax: 706-754-0436
Email: wj.timtek@windstream.net
Mississippi State University Dan Seale, Professor
Department of Forest Products
Box 9820
MS State, MS 39762
Phone: 662-325-3072
Fax: 662-325-8126
Email: dseale@cfr.msstate.edu