When Louisiana Pacific began operating its oriented strand board manufacturing plant in March of 1998, the company was bringing the latest technology and more than 140 jobs to Carthage. The local plant’s goal is to support the timber and lumber needs of East Texas.
Instead of a piece of the rock, city and county officials got a piece of the board March 23, 1998 at the Louisiana Pacific Carthage OSB plant. LP was celebrating the manufacture of its first oriented strand board by distributing small inscribed wall plaques mounted on portions of the first OSB panel.
“This is one of the largest and most modern OSB mills in America,” said LP spokesman Dan Winfry.
LP’s original location in Panola County was the saw mill on SH 149. The OSB plant is located on CR 201.
Shortly after its opening, LP’s Carthage OSB plant hosted an open house during the summer months, complete with a catered lunch and fun for the kids. Panola Countians were invited to facility for guided tours.
Round-the-clock production began in April of 1998. The plant’s annual production capacity is 400 million square feet of OSB, but in spite of the massive quantities of production, the plant has the latest technology to monitor both environmental compliance and product quality.
In its most basic form, OSB us a 4x8-foot construction panel made from wafers or strands of wood. The strands are coated with resin and joined together under heat and pressure. The grain of the wood strands is aligned (oriented) to provide increased performance properties. Typically, OSB is made from relatively low-cost timber species that are fast growing and non-controversial.
The high-tech control equipment in the facility includes environmental compliance, programmable logic controllers, and other sophisticated that monitor and regulate manufacturing and process controls.
LP is a major building products company headquartered in Portland, Oregon with manufacturing facilities throughout the United States, as well as in Canada and Ireland.
(Thanks to The Panola Watchman insert for this information.)
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04/02/2008