SASKAT TOO ON

The Domtar plant located in the northern industrial
section of Saskatoon is another operation certified to
Local 1-184 IWA, Saskatchewan. The plant manufactures
a softboard panel much in demand for roofing, sound
control and insulation purposes.

The Company also produced a hardboard but phased
this operation out when it proved uneconomical.

The plant usually operates on a 3-shift basis 5 days a
week. Approximately 50 cords of wood per day are
processed into panels. An unusual feature is that the
Company is mainly dependent on the farmers in the area
for its source of wood.

As may be seen by the Company’s flow sheet
manufacturing the panels requires a number of various
operations. The flow starts with the poplar logs (9” in
diameter and 4’ in length) going to the chipper from the
outside log conveyor. This machine slices the logs into
chips about 1” x %” x 1/16” thick.

- From the chipper they go to the chip storage bin. From
there they are moved to the asplund defibrator where
they are subjected to steam pressure from 2 to 4 minutes
to soften them. The chips are then passed between
refining plates to extract the fibres which are about tooth-
pick in size.

The next process is the disc refiner to further refine
the fibres before they are dumped in the pulp storage
tanks. There the refined fibres are mixed with water to
facilitate pumping. The measurement is approximately 97
percent water, 3 percent fibre, with sizing added.

The fibres which are now a pulp go to the 4 foot wide
forming machine. In this machine the pulp flows onto a
continuous wire where the water is separated out by
gravity. More water is taken out by suction and squeezing
between rollers leaving the wet mat about 60 percent
water.

- The wet mats or boards are then sent to the dryer
which has 6 decks and is 130 feet long by 8 feet wide. The
boards are fed alternately into the decks by an automatic
tipple. It takes approximately 2 hours for a board 4’ x 8'x
¥2" to pass through the dryer.

The dry boards are automatically unloaded from the
dryer and move through a two pass trim saw which trims
them to the proper width and length. The finished product
is then examined for defects before going to the

laminating and/or wrapping operation and storage.

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