Industries Served
High Performance Equipment for the Wood Processing Industry
At Kadant Carmanah, we engineer and manufacture high quality equipment for the wood processing sector, with a strong focus on the strand-based engineered wood products industry. We work with various types of wood processing mills that require machinery for stranding, debarking, or chipping logs at a high recovery rate, helping them reach their production and quality targets. With hundreds of machines installed worldwide, we help our customers find the right equipment that will work for their wood processing operation, providing safe, reliable, and consistent performance.
Oriented Strand Board (OSB) Mills
Oriented Strand Board (OSB) is a widely used, versatile, structural wood panel. Whole, debarked logs are processed through a stranding machine, creating rectangularly shaped wood strands. When arranged in cross-oriented layers and pressed with adhesives, the result is an engineered wood panel that shares many of the same strength and performance characteristics of plywood. OSB is dimensionally stable and resists deflection, delamination and warping. Relative to their strength, OSB panels are light in weight and easy to handle and install. Common OSB applications include flooring, wall, and roof sheathing, and furniture.
Laminated Strand Lumber (LSL) Mills
Under the broader Structural Composite Lumber (SCL) product line, Laminated Strand Lumber (LSL) is made from whole, debarked logs that are processed through a stranding machine, creating flaked wood strands that have a length-to-thickness ratio of approximately 150. Combined with adhesive, the strands are oriented and formed into a large mat or billet, then pressed. LSL is a solid, highly predictable and uniform engineered wood product, that is sawn to consistent sizes and is virtually free from warping and splitting. Common LSL applications include studs and millwork components.
Oriented Strand Lumber (OSL) Mills
Similar to LSL and within the SCL product family, Oriented Strand Lumber (OSL) is also made from flaked wood strands that have been processed from whole, debarked logs through a stranding machine. The strand geometry for OSL results in length-to-thickness ratios of approximately 75. Combined with an adhesive, the strands are oriented and formed into a large mat or billet and pressed. OSL is a solid, highly predictable and uniform engineered wood product, that is sawn to consistent sizes and is virtually free from warping and splitting. Common OSL applications include studs and millwork components.
Sawmills
A sawmill uses large saws to cut timber logs into rough-cut lumber, generating wood waste that is not suitable for lumber in the process. Chipping machines efficiently convert this leftover wastewood material into uniform wood chips, transforming it into a valuable raw material for the pulp and paper industry.
Planer Mills
Planer or planing mills refine rough-cut lumber from a sawmill, smoothing and cutting the wood surfaces into uniform dimensions, creating structural, dimensional lumber for use in construction. Like sawmills, planer mills generate wood waste that is not suitable for lumber, requiring a chipping machine to process planer mill wastewood into small, uniform wood chips, turning them into a valuable byproduct for the pulp and paper industry.
Related Products
Pulp Mills
Pulp mills process wood chips or other plant fiber materials into a thick fiberboard, known as pulp, which can be sent to a paper mill for further processing. In addition to receiving wood chips from outside sources like sawmills or planer mills, many pulp mills will also process whole debarked logs on-site.
Standalone Wood Chip Plants
A standalone wood chip plant processes whole logs or wastewood into wood chips, which can then be supplied as a valuable byproduct for the pulp or paper industry, or further processed into biofuel or mulch.
Research and Academia
The purpose of research and academia within the stand-based engineered wood products industry is to document scientific knowledge, educate the workforce, and drive innovation to ensure its long-term competitiveness and sustainability. At Kadant Carmanah, we maintain and operate a strand-based testing laboratory to conduct research and new product development services to industry and academia, by using lab-scale equipment to simulate strands being produced in a mill environment.
Related Services
Helping You Maximize the Profitability of Your Logs
With decades of experience in engineering and manufacturing wood processing equipment, we have worked with various wood species, sizes, and conditions, have achieved various strand or chip geometries, and have helped lay out multiple wood rooms to support various throughput and capacity targets. Whatever you’re trying to process with your logs, we’re here to help provide the right mix of machinery for your wood processing operation.
