Research Engineer R & D Manager-Wood Quality

A survey was conducted of US pulp and paper mills to characterize chip pile manage survey was developed by members of the TAPPI Fiber Raw Material Supply Commit tee December of 1999. There were a total of 80 re dents to the surve one sofhvood and one hard Chip transport to piles was Pile inventory method was volume to weight was predominate quality varied by region, with brightness losses being the major concern in the West, in the North, and by-product losses in the South. and size losses I N T R O D U C T I O N Wood yards often are viewed as black boxes at pulp and paper mills throughout the Uni difficult to track inventory of purchased feedstock through the wood yard, and there is information on losses in wood volume or quality occurring between the chipper and d inventory can also be tied up in chip piles and there are few published comparisons o inventory measurement systems. The TAPPI Fiber Raw Material Supply Committee felt it was important to begin dot chips are handled in order to begin developing improved practices for tracking chi through wood yards. A survey form was developed and mailed in December 199 at all known wood consuming mills in the US. The survey asked questions about number of chip piles, how piles were built, rmintained, and reclaimed, and about management strategies. Mills were also asked what losses in quali ty were most chsracteristics were measured before pulping. Surveys were returned to a neutral party compiling and summarizing the results. This paper is a report on the results of the surv