Wednesday, July 4, 2018
The Joensuu Plywood Mill in Finland celebrates its 100th year this summer. While the applications of the products have changed over the course of a hundred years, the high-quality and durable Finnish birch plywood is still in worldwide demand. Global megatrends – such as urbanization, digitalization, increased stream of goods, energy requirements and environmental awareness – ensure the prosperity of birch plywood, manufactured from renewable raw material, far into the future.
The manufacture of birch plywood started at the Joensuu Plywood Mill a hundred years ago, when a factory designed for manufacturing bobbins was sold to Backman & Co in 1916. The company named its factory Itä-Suomen Faneeritehdas Oy a year later.
After the change of ownership, the factory was quickly modified to suit plywood manufacturing; however, the eruption of the Finnish Civil War in January 1918 delayed the start of manufacture, which only got under way after the war ended in May 1918.
According to Kimmo Wilska, Mill Director of the Joensuu Plywood Mill, the plywood manufactured in the early days of the mill was mainly used for tea chests and, to a lesser extent, for furniture and products used in building and construction.The production processes and applications have changed in the hundred years since, and at present, the UPM-owned mill manufactures WISA Plywood mainly for two end-use applications: truck and trailer floors , and insulation components of tankers used in the transportation of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Manufacturing at the mill is divided almost in half between these two applications, and the production capacity of the mill is 55,000 cubic metres per year: enough plywood for approximately 10 LNG carriers and 15,000 to 20,000 trailers.
Wilska explains that the plywood for both applications is manufactured using birch logs from the surrounding area, which are shipped to the mill from within a 150-kilometre radius.
Birch is an almost unique material, not to mention one that grows continuously in their forests.
Tags: 100th year, birch plywood, celebrates, digitalization, Finland, high-quality and durable Finnish birch plywood, Joensuu Plywood Mill, Kimmo Wilska, Mill Director, urbanization
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