April 29, 2005—Columbia Forest Products, North America’s largest manufacturer of hardwood plywood and hardwood veneer, has begun converting all its veneer-core hardwood plywood plants to formaldehyde-free manufacturing processes, the company says.
The new process will use a patented, soy-based adhesive cooperatively developed by Columbia, the College of Forestry at Oregon State University and Hercules Incorporated.
The new adhesive, whose makeup is primarily soy flour, will allow Columbia to completely eliminate formaldehyde from its veneer-core and Woodstalk agrifiber-core panel products. The company expects the conversion to be complete within one year.
Urea formaldehyde (UF) is used in the majority of North American and imported hardwood plywood panels and has recently been classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), part of the World Health Organization, as “carcinogenic to humans,” notes the company.
For more information on Columbia Forest Products, visit the company Web site.
