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AARC 



Alternative Agricultural Research & Commercialization Center 



Forest 'Trash' to Make 

 Fine Furniture 



Creating high-value products from 

 low-quality or waste materials and 

 creating jobs in depressed rural 

 areas: These two goals combmed to pro- 

 duce the new "molded strandwood" 

 technology developed by the Michigan 

 Technological University's Institute of Wood 

 Research. 



Today, Strandwood Molding Inc. of 

 Lake Linden, Michigan, is ready to commer- 

 ciahze the new technology by turning lum- 

 ber residues and poor-quahty or small-diam- 

 eter logs into precisely shaped furniture 

 parts. Strandwood s plan is to make use of 

 readily available labor and lumber in 

 Michigan's northwestern Upper Peninsula to 

 create a profitable, new industry — and a 

 model for what other rural areas could . 

 accomphsh with available resources around 

 the country and around the world. 



Strandwood itself plans to invest S2 

 million in commercializing the new technol- 

 ogy. Along with $ I 55,770 raised from other 

 sources, the .alternative Agricultural 

 Research and Commercialization (AARC) 

 Center, a branch of the U.S. Department of 

 Agriculture, plans to support the Strandwood 

 project with a $300,000 investment. The 

 repayable AARC investment is intended to 

 support the development of small-scale pro- 

 duction equipment for use in manufacturing 

 strandwood parts. 



One key to the potential for molded 

 strandwood is that the new technology can 

 turn low-quality wood into high-strength, 

 complexly curved furniture parts that elimi- 

 nate some of the multiple parts, joints and 

 fasteners which both add to the cost of furni- 

 ture making and create weak points in the 

 furniture. This new "engineered" wood prod- 

 uct takes advantage of low-cost, readily available materials to create finished products that offer superior 

 consistency compared to equivalent parts made from solid wood, plywood or plastic. 



A second key is that potential markets for compression-molded strandwood stretch far beyond the 

 furniture industry Offering the environmental advantage of easing pressure on the nation's forests, strand- 

 wood could become a low-cost, high-strength alternative to ordinary lumber in products such as shipping 

 pallets, concrete forms, flooring and nestable containers. 



Strandwood Molding Inc., Ml 



Sponsor's Contact: Bruce A. Haataja, (906) 487-9768 

 Raw Material; Wood Strands Flaked from 



Pulpwood Grade Timber 

 Product: Molded Strandwood Furniture Paris 



AARC: 



Cooperators Contributions (est.): 



$ 315,000 

 $2,155,770 



USDA-AARC CENTER • 12th & C St. S.W. • Washington, DC 20250 

 Telephone: (202) 401-4860 • Fax: (202) 401-6068 



Pnnled on recycled paper using soybean-based ink 



