Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 2000. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the World Wide Web.

British Columbia's plywood industry between 1913 and 1935 bore little relationship to the industry of the post-World War II period. In 1913, the Canadian Western Lumber Company's Fraser Mills plant manufactured Douglas fir plywood, but until the late 1930s the largest part of its production was used in door manufacture. Two cottonwood plywood manufacturers, Laminated Materials Company (1913–1931) at New Westminster and the British Columbia Veneer Works (1928–1945) at Nelson, sold their plywood for interior wall paneling and specialty uses such as packing crates. The opening of the H. R. MacMillan Export Company's (MacMillan Bloedel) Vancouver plywood plant in 1935 and its Alberni plant, built in 1942, began a new era of plywood production. Sanded Douglas fir plywood dominated sales. The major producers (MacMillan Bloedel, Canadian Forest Products, Crown Zellerbach, British Columbia Forest Products, and Weldwood), assisted by the Plywood Manufacturers Association of British Columbia, targeted customers and created demand for waterproof Douglas fir plywood. The major producers established a network of wholesale warehouses across Canada and used these warehouses as a competitive strategy to develop and influence sales. The major manufacturers after World War II used the high profits generated by Douglas fir plywood to assist their expansion into integrated forest products. Each company chose a different strategy of expansion and adapted its plywood production to suit its corporate goals. Plywood became one product among several and declined in importance for each company. By the 1970s substitute products such as oriented strand board were being promoted as replacements for plywood. Cheaper production costs and the use of waste wood fibre, instead of high quality Douglas fir logs, meant that government and industry favourably viewed the substitute products. The high value of old growth Douglas fir logs and increased costs in all aspects of production resulted in the closure of all but one coastal plywood plant, Richmond Plywood, by 1999. Exports were a small percentage of total plywood sales and did not compensate for declining domestic demand. The interior plywood industry was re-established in 1951 with the opening of Western Plywood's Quesnel plant. A number of plants, scattered throughout the interior, produced plywood using small logs and species other than coastal Douglas fir. Production was mainly sheathing used to clad building floors, roofs, and walls. The scattered nature of plant location, cheaper log costs, small log processing technology, and different harvesting tenures contributed to the success of interior plywood production. The large producers closed their coastal plywood plants arguing that production costs were too high and that other products were replacing plywood in the marketplace. The prosperity of interior plywood manufacturing suggests that the coastal industry stopped production because neither government nor manufacturers saw any reason to seek viable alternatives. The forest industry's diverse nature and its perception of future, based on past activities, supported the closure of the coastal plants and the continued survival of the interior plants within a new forest economy. / Graduate

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Miami University, Dept. of Political Science, 2005. / Title from second page of PDF document. Document formatted into pages; contains [2], ix, 199 p. : ill., maps. Includes bibliographical references (p. 135-147).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 122-130).

An experiment was designed to test the hypothesis that each softwood pulp is unique and requires a specific, well defined mechanical treatment to derive its maximum strength potential. Three bleached softwood Kraft pulps and respective wood samples were sourced from both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. The raw fibre characteristics of P. patula (Southern Hemisphere), P. menziesii (Northern Hemisphere) and P. mariana (Northern Hemisphere) were measured and compared. The raw pulp sheets were refined at different energies and intensities under controlled laboratory conditions using a 12” single disc pilot refiner. Results were assessed to determine the raw fibre characteristics, optimum refining conditions and the relative refined strength potential for each of the three samples. Results from anatomy measurements on the three wood samples differed significantly. P. patula exhibited a relatively high proportion of springwood growth in the early growing years. As the P. patula aged and formed mature wood there was a significant increase in the frequency of latewood formation. This was characterized by an abrupt and significant increase in the wall thickness, beyond that of the two Northern softwood samples. When the cell wall thickness increased, the lumen width and fibre diameter of the P. patula decreased significantly, yielding extremely coarse, stiff fibres. The Northern P .mariana and P. menziesii samples were characterized by a relatively consistent transition between high and low densities from the pith to the bark of the tree. The Southern P. patula had a unique density trend with an increasing frequency of high density peaks indicative of an increased latewood formation from the pith to the bark. The slower growing Northern P. menziesii and P. mariana samples did not have as clear a differentiation in fibre characteristics between juvenile and mature wood formation. The Northern samples did however contain a significantly higher proportion of juvenile latewood growth than the P. patula. However, the difference in fibre characteristics between earlywood and latewood formation was not as significant as that noted with the Southern P. patula Fibre morphology measurements on the unrefined bleached Kraft pulps also revealed significant differences between the three samples. The average MORFI LAB01 results on the P. patula defined fibres with a high coarseness and relatively low number of fibres per gram of pulp. The extremely coarse latewood fibres formed during mature wood growth being the most likely source. However, P. patula was also characterized with a high fibre flexibility and large lumen, characteristics consistent with earlywood fibres. The Pulmac Z-Span 3000 was used to define the individual fibre strength, when due consideration was given to the number of fibres per gram, the corrected Pulmac results suggested P. patula had the strongest fibres. When refined, using a standard disc refining programme, P. patula exhibited a fast freeness development. Conventional thinking would suggest that this was an indication of a weaker fibre. However, this species had a robust morphology compared to the Northern Hemisphere woods. The theory developed in this dissertation suggests that the effect of coarseness and the concomitant number of fibres per gram plays a significant role. These two parameters are not included in the “traditional” refining calculations. The applied refining load and intensity was calculated on the flow of the pulp passing through the refiner. The calculation did not consider the actual number of fibres present in that specific volume. The implication is that when a fixed refining load is applied to a pulp with coarse fibres there may be a higher effective load on those fewer fibres (resulting in fibre cutting and fines generation). In this case, the Northern samples have a comparatively low coarseness and more fibres per gram with each receiving a smaller portion of the total load and intensity. In terms of refined pulp properties, P. patula developed a relatively high bulk and tear index consistent with coarse, rigid fibres. The Northern P. mariana and P. menziesii samples produced a pulp with good tensile properties, consistent with a greater number of finer, collapsible fibres with a higher relative bonding area. P. patula fibres were extremely heterogeneous in nature containing the smallest relative lumen width during latewood formation and the largest lumen width during earlywood growth. As a result, P. patula contains extremes of both fine and coarse fibres in the same blend. It may be more beneficial for this species than the others to improve both the tear and tensile properties through fibre fractionation with appropriate development of the separate accepts and rejects streams. In terms of fibre development, low intensity refining parameters maximized the tensile strength of the Southern P. patula. The Northern P. mariana and P. menziesii samples had a greater number of fibres per gram of pulp requiring both a higher refining energy and intensity to develop the pulp to its maximum potential. To develop optimum tear results, high intensity refining, with a relatively low specific energy provided optimum results for all 3 samples. Results confirmed that there were significant differences in the fibre morphology both between the three different species and between the two Hemispheres. There was strong evidence that the fibre characteristics dictate the manner in which a fibre responds to refining which in turn determines the relative contribution to specific refined pulp properties. It may be possible to use fibre characteristics to determine the appropriate refining parameters for optimal fibre development which will enhance the value of the end product. To derive the maximum strength potential from P. patula pulp samples, it is recommended that further studies investigate Hydracyclone fractionation and the concomitant benefits of refining the separate streams. Furthermore, a separate study on fibre morphology and refining characteristics of the same species grown in both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere would provide valuable insight. / Thesis (M.Sc.Eng)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

Quality perceptions of three major softwood lumber consumers: wood treaters, truss manufacturers, and home centers were investigated to determine their definition of softwood lumber quality. Data was gathered through a mail survey of buyers in each of the three groups. In total, 867 responses were received. Respondents rated the importance of product and service characteristics to quality. These characteristics were based on dimensions of product quality developed by Garvin (1984) and dimensions of service quality developed by Parasuraman et aI. (1988). A total of 80 product and service quality characteristics were assembled to represent, or measure, twelve dimensions of total product quality. Analysis indicated that the twelve dimension model, derived from previous work, was not applicable to softwood dimension lumber. Thus, exploratory factor analysis was used to assess the underlying dimensions of quality and a five dimension model resulted. The dimensions, ranked in order of importance, were: Lumber Characteristics, Supplier/Salesperson Characteristics, Lumber Performance, Supplier Services, and Supplier Facilities. These findings share few similarities with past research. In fact, they suggest that the concept of quality as a higher order abstract (i.e., dimensions of quality are similar regardless of product) may be flawed. Respondent groups differed in the importance they placed on three of the five dimensions. No difference in importance levels were found for Supplier/Salesperson Characteristics and Lumber Characteristics. However, truss manufacturers perceived Lumber Performance to be more important than treaters or home centers and Supplier Services was perceived to be more important by home centers than the other two groups. Finally, Supplier Facilities was perceived to be most important by treaters. Data gathered in a follow-up questionnaire indicated that the model developed in this study was understood by buyers of softwood lumber and that they buy from suppliers who perform well on dimensions of quality. Buyers also indicated that they pay more for better quality lumber and better service. This evidence indicates that suppliers of softwood dimension lumber can differentiate themselves based on quality and in tum command a higher price. Given these findings, strategies for utilizing quality, and the model developed in this study, to gain competitive advantage are discussed. / Ph. D.