PLYWOOD LINE
used in Select’s other divisions.
The face manufacturing division takes
raw veneer and slices it laterally to make
about 30,000 veneer faces a month.
The architectural panel division
takes exotic wood and produces panels
using architectural blueprints, offering
external banding, edge details and
finishing.
Another division specializes in
plywood, in sizes from 2 x 4 to 5 x 12
feet. Waldo says Select has 94 million
options available as far as species,
thickness, grade and type of core.
“We are good at mass customization
of plywood products,” Waldo says. “If a
customer has a job that requires 2,000
sheets of sequence matched, blueprint
matched domestic, exotic or reconstituted woods, that’s what we do well.”
Kilibarda says one recent notable
project was supplying 5,300 architectural panels for the University of
Michigan’s Ross School of Business.
“Very large, complex jobs are our
specialty,” he says.
In Smithfield there are 70 employees working in the 90,000-square-foot
Veneer close-up. The company handles veneer management, which includes veneer grading,
processing, face manufacturing and custom panel manufacturing.
plant. Frank and Doug Kilibarda are
co-owners, and the company has annual sales of about $12 million. About
10 percent of business is from export
sales. The company is FSC certified so
they can do LEED work.
New plywood processing
Select Veneer upgraded its capabilities last year with the addition of a new
Midwest Automation plywood processing line that includes veneer laminating, edge trimmer and vacuum pick
and place. It was intended to work with
a Butfering veneer sander.
Four people can run 400 to 500
sheets in an eight-hour shift. The new
line can handle 4 x 6- to 5 x 12-foot
sheets in ¼- through 2-inch thicknesses.
To start, plywood comes in and
www.dakotaautomation.com
