Center for Forest Products Business
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The CFPB is a cooperative between the Department of Sustainable Biomaterials at Virginia Tech and its industry partners that seeks to help companies remain competitive through its management of assets and marketing activities.
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Browsing Center for Forest Products Business by Content Type "Report"
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- 2011 Annual Report, Center for Forest Products Business(Virginia Tech. Department of Wood Science and Forest Products, 2011-08)This annual report details student and faculty accomplishments for the Center in 2010-2011.
- Annual Report, Center for Forest Products Business 2019(2019-08-24)This annual report lists faculty and student accomplishments at the Center for the period of July 1, 2018 - June 30, 2019.
- Annual Report, Center for Forest Products Business 2020(Virginia Tech, 2020-06-30)This annual report lists faculty and student accomplishments at the Center for the period of July 1, 2019 - June 30, 2020.
- Annual Report, Center for Forest Products Business 2021(Virginia Tech, 2021)This annual report lists faculty and student accomplishments at the Center for the period of July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2021.
- Annual Report: Center for Forest Products Business, 2013-2014(Virginia Tech, 2014)This annual report details student and faculty accomplishments for the Center in 2013-2014.
- Annual Report: Center for Forest Products Business, 2017-2018(Virginia Tech, 2018)This annual report details student and faculty accomplishments for the Center in 2017-2018.
- Benchmarking Performance Measurement and the Implementation of Lean Manufacturing in the Secondary Wood Processing Rough MillCumbo, Dan; Kline, D. Earl; Van Aken, Eileen M.; Smith, Robert L. (Virginia Tech, 2004-09)It is hypothesized that, while other components of the secondary wood products value stream; e.g., moulding, turning, sanding, etc, are being integrated and “leaned up” so to speak, the rough mill represents a real or perceived barrier to full implementation of lean manufacturing tools, techniques and concepts. This study investigated the implementation of lean manufacturing in the rough mill as well as performance measurement and metrics at both the rough mill and overall business level. Data were collected from a nationwide survey of secondary wood processing facilities.
- Increasing Exports of US Wooden Modular Homes to Developing Countries SystemsKakkar, Gaurav; Quesada, Henry Jose; Smith, Robert L. (Virginia Tech. Center for Forest Products Business. Department of Sustainable Biomaterials, 2017-11)Sustainable housing is one of the fundamental necessities for socio-economic development. Yet a considerable population of the developing world is living in substandard houses. On the other hand, developed countries like the United States have substantially improved the residential construction sector by engineering new materials and developing efficient systems. This study attempts to link this supply capacity of the system built wood construction sector in the United States to urban low-income housing markets in the Latin-American region. Expansion to new markets and diversification to new products can rejuvenate this industry in the U.S. Linking the manufacturer with potential buyers overseas would need efficient production, logistics and marketing systems. This research is focused on product development for bottom-of-the pyramid buyers to give them an affordable yet sustainable alternative to traditional systems. Interviews and survey tools were used to assess key aspects of housing deficits in target demographics of the South and Central American regions. System built wood construction manufacturers in the U.S. were assessed to identify barriers and incentives for internationalization and how they differ from exporting to non-exporting manufacturers within the same industry. Findings indicate that developing products for social housing programs can provide access to potential untapped markets. Lack of existing wood construction in some of the selected markets indicates the possibility of resistance to acceptance but also assures no local competition. The learnings can also contribute to opening of new markets for exports of prefabricated wooden buildings in other housing sectors.
- Investigation of vacuum and steam treatments to heat treat and sanitize ash logs and ash firewoodChen, Zhangjing; White, Marshall S. (Virginia Tech. Department of Wood Science and Forest Products, 2013-11-16)The goal of this project was to investigate the efficacy of vacuum/steam technology to sanitize low quality ash logs and ash firewood. It is difficult to heat treat the saw logs and firewood because of the relatively large cross sectional dimension and its irregularity. The combination of steam condensation and vacuum technology is one of most effective heat transfer mechanism because the steam carries large amount of heat and the condensation is fast to release the energy to the wood. Also, under the pressure difference, steam can migrate quickly into the wood. The vacuum/steam system consists of a vacuum source (vacuum pump), controlling device, flexible container and a steam generator. At low temperature, steam is created using a hot water heater rather than a boiler. The treatment system creates a vacuum in the container and at the same time produces the saturated steam. Monitoring devices were attached to the equipment to record and control the process. The white ash logs and firewood were harvested in the Montgomery county, Virginia. Ash log diameters ranged from 6.5 to 11 inches on the small end. The logs were cut into 6 foot lengths. They were treated to determine the time and energy consumption. After vacuum was drawn to 300 or 500 mmHg inside the container, steam was injected into the container. The steaming continued until 56°C was reached at the center of the logs. A total fifteen logs were treated to document the treating times. The treating time for all the logs varied from 5.5 to 14.5 hours which includes a vacuum and holding time of 30 minutes. The six feet logs were cut into 16 inches, plus or minus 2 inches bolts and then split into firewood, rarely larger than 6 inches on the wider side. The treating time for firewood varied from 80 to 137 minutes which includes vacuum and a holding time at temperature of 30 minutes. Energy consumed was about 0.154 to 0.309 kwh to treat one pound of log and 0.111 to 0.219 kwh to treat one pound of firewood using this process. Steam and vacuum can be used to efficiently heat treat ash firewood and firewood logs to kill wood boring forest pests.