NOFMA Mill Tour Draws 28 Industry Professionals

Wilsonville, OR, May 30, 2008--Twenty-eight wood flooring industry professionals representing 15 flooring producer and machinery companies took part in the first annual NOFMA Mill Tour May 18 - 20.

The trip began and ended in Nashville, Tenn., with stops at Hassell & Hughes Lumber Company in Collinwood, Tenn., Hasko Machinery in Soddy Daisy, Tenn., and Cumberland Lumber and Manufacturing, McMinnville, Tenn.,

"All in all, I'd have to say that, for the first time out of the gate, the tour went quite well," Timm Locke, NOFMA executive vice president.

Participants in the tour included representatives from seven NOFMA member companies and eight non-members. "We were hoping it'd be both an excellent learning opportunity and a chance for industry folks to interact and get to know one another a little better. I think it was a success on both counts," Locke said.

The flooring plants on the tour, Hassell & Hughes and Cumberland, have both recently installed new automated nesting systems developed by Blue Valley Automation. While the basic concept is the same at each plant, the set up at Hassell & Hughes is entirely different from that at Cumberland.

Tour participants had the opportunity to walk through the mills while asking questions of the mill operators who actually run the machinery. In addition to the BVA systems, the group saw Hasko rip saws, side matcher and cross-over end matcher as well as a wood pellet mill in operation at the Hassell and Hughes plant, while the Cumberland tour featured a Mereen Johnson gang ripsaw, Industrial chop saw, Hasko side matcher and Doucet end matcher.

"Every flooring mill is is at least a little different from every other and producers can benefit greatly from visiting other producers' facilities," Locke said. "No doubt, this tour demonstrated the value in that."