these species with pine, met 

 American Plywood Association 

 standards. The association 

 followed up by broadening 

 standards to permit use of these 

 species. Industry adopted the new 

 standards quickly at annual cost 

 savings of up to $1 million per 

 plywood plant (W. Thompson, 

 personal communication). 



The William H. Sardo, Jr., Pallet 

 and Container Research 

 Laboratory at VPI and SU was 

 built in 1976 with funds provided 

 by the National Wooden Pallet and 

 Container Association. It serves an 

 industry made up of 3,000 to 4,000 

 manufacturers in the United 

 States. They collectively consume 

 more than 50 percent of total 

 hardwood lumber produced, to 

 manufacture more than 400 million 

 pallets annually. This post-World 

 War II development is estimated to 

 save the average American 

 consumer $500 per year because of 

 reduced materials handling and 

 distribution costs. The laboratory 

 is the only one of its kind in the 

 world. 



With major funding from the 

 association, VPI and SU, and the 

 USDA Forest Service's Forest 

 Products Laboratory and 

 Northeastern Forest Experiment 

 Station, and with major research 

 participation by these Forest 

 Service units, the laboratory 

 developed a computerized system 

 for customized pallet designing. 

 This uses materials, pattern, and 



use characteristics as input 

 variables and predicts life 

 expectance, total costs, and cost 

 per handling trip as outputs. The 

 system is offered to pallet 

 manufacturers on a subscription 

 basis and has been enthusiastically 

 accepted by the industry (Ifju, 

 personal communication). 



North Carolina State established 

 its Reuben B. Robertson Pulp and 

 Paper Laboratory for teaching and 

 research in 1956. It is the only 

 facility of its kind in the South 

 (Saylor 1979). Basic and applied 

 studies completed recently have 

 produced information on the use of 

 oxygen rather than chlorine in the 

 pulp bleaching process. Some 20 

 pulp mills worldwide have installed 

 a bleaching system based on this 

 research. It reduces water 

 pollution and also reduces 

 chemical costs by $15 per ton of 

 pulp. For a typical southern 

 1 ,000-ton-per-day mill, the saving 

 will amount to $5,475,000 per year. 

 The system can be installed in 

 most mills without major overhaul 

 of the bleach plant (North Carolina 

 State University 1985 unpubl.). 



Basic Research — Basic research is 

 research that is not immediately 

 applicable except to other research 

 (and sometimes not then). Since 

 this publication is an impact 

 history, the subject will be 

 mentioned only briefly. 



Basic research needs to be 

 recognized for several reasons. 



42 



