Building materials and lumber giant Louisiana Pacific and the European handling machinery and press specialist Biele Group (and IWF 2022 exhibitor) have successfully implemented their first project—a shake profile production line in Swan Valley, Manitoba, Canada.
LP’s investment is part of its expansion plans for siding products in the building market within its LP® SmartSide® Trim & Siding brand.
The project consists of a fully automatic shake profile production line that is fed with 8×4‘ OSB (oriented strand board) panels for several post-processing processes to get different sized shakes. The Biele line feeds the mother board and cuts it into multiple pieces that will be profiled, painted, and packaged according to different recipes.
Prior to adding the Shake Line in Swan Valley, LP had a shake line in Roaring River, NC.
“Customer demand for the shake product was outpacing the capacity of the Roaring River line,” says LP’s Engineering Project Manager Danaillie Woodfine. “The new shake line includes more automation and an increased line speed that is capable of twice the production of the Roaring River line. This increased capacity will allow LP to meet future customer demand.” Woodfine says the project, implemented during the pandemic, went better than anticipated.
“Doing business during COVID-19 was often times unpredictable,” Woodfine says. “But Biele was able to adapt quickly to changes in order to keep the project on track.”
