Machine Will Be Used for Wood-Plastic Composites Research and Development

ENTEK is pleased to announce that it has donated an E-MAX™ E-27mm twin-screw extruder with auxiliary equipment to the Department of Wood Science and Engineering at Oregon State University (OSU) in Corvallis, Oregon. The machine, donated in 2006, has recently been started-up and is now in full operation.

On a recent visit to OSU, ENTEK Vice President and Chief Operati00ng Officer Dr. Kirk Hanawalt met with Dr. Kaichang Li, Associate Professor/Wood Science and Engineering, College of

Forestry, and saw the E-27 machine in operation. “We are happy to partner with OSU to find new and better ways to produce WPC products,” he said.

The ENTEK E-MAX™ 27mm twin-screw extruder is an ideal laboratory-sized/low volume production machine. Like all ENTEK extruders, the E-27 features co-rotating technology for the highest quality material mixing and is manufactured at the company’s headquarters in Lebanon, Oregon.

WPC R&D at OSU

The quest continues throughout the industry to develop aesthetic, maintenance-free WPC products that continue to look like wood over the years but won’t rot, splinter, warp or deteriorate over time. Much of the research and development of WPC technology is happening at leading universities around the globe. OSU’s Department of Wood Science and Engineering has been ranked by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as one of the top four such programs in North America. Its mission is “to use science, technology, engineering and business practices to help society meet its needs for wood products and keep U.S. companies competitive in a global marketplace.”

In a letter to ENTEK from Thomas McLain, Professor and Head of the Department of Wood Science and Engineering at OSU, he said “Your gift greatly enhances our research capacity in wood-plastic composites and is a missing link for our equipment chain that allows us to transfer our laboratory results to commercially viable technologies . . . our goal is to use your gift to develop more commercially viable products and technologies that capitalize on the abundant low-grade woody biomass in the Pacific Northwest and to help our domestic industry be more globally competitive.”