The Crow Connection

At Crow, one of our goals is to be the first-place mills turn to improve their operations. Traditionally, we’ve pursued this goal by providing capital and maintenance project support services.

The industry knows that the US needs to add about 1.5 million new homes per year to keep pace with population growth and replace existing homes. Forecasters indicate that lumber capacity in North America will fall short of new demand by close to 7 BBF which is equivalent to more than 20 large-capacity sawmills.

To ensure safety and minimize the risk of operational shutdowns at a time of high demand, many mills commission a structural assessment of critical facilities. Such assessments typically involve an analysis and evaluation of foundations, framings, and associated construction systems and details.

In March 2021, activity in the sector surged to a 37-year high. An estimated half million jobs in manufacturing remain unfilled. Across the spectrum – from low-skilled entry-level positions to specialized roles such as welders and machinists — factory operators find it increasingly difficult to find the workers they need.

When it comes to upgrading conveyors, it’s important to move deliberately. For starters, you’ll need to assess the space, infrastructure, and equipment in place.

Structures and equipment don’t last forever. At some point, they begin to exhibit signs of wear and tear. Eventually, you need to take action. Which is what ‘brownfield” plant modernization is all about. There’s a lot of value in the equipment you already have – and with plant modernization, you can keep on generating value for years to come.

In the first part of this article, we looked at the basics and dimensions of metal buildings for industrial settings. In this second part of the article, we explain the design criteria and specifications of pre-engineered metal buildings.

Crow has helped customers save millions of dollars in capital expenses by re-purposing current facilities and equipment on site. If you’re in the lumber business, it’s hardly news that demand has been outstripping supply – largely due to a pandemic housing boom that few saw coming. With new home building reaching a 15-year high, demand for new building materials such as 2×4 lumber is through the roof.

Keep the risk low, keep employees safe, and keep operations up and running – which keeps the revenue flowing.

Choosing the right partners to support your project often determines the success of that project. What’s needed are vendors with subject matter expertise and a proven track record of success.

Designing buildings to stand up to the elements requires detailed site analysis to determine weather patterns, climate, soil types, wind speed and directions, heat, path of the sun, and more. Solutions involving insulation, vapor barriers, and air barriers will vary radically depending on whether the site is in the cold and snowy north, the hot and humid south, or the arid desert.

Recently, Freres worked with Crow Engineering to design an open-sided structure using its MPP product. The aim of the project was to infill a space between two manufacturing buildings at the Freres Plant 3 mill in Mill City, OR.

Miloptic, LLC is pleased to announce the acquisition of Automation Industries Corporation (AIC). This acquisition will allow Miloptic to offer a variety of nondestructive testing technology systems that ensure and improve the quality of building products through its parent company Crow Engineering, Inc. Clyde Steffens, former President of AIC, is serving as President of Ultrasonic Development for Miloptic.

Two players. One chess board. One move yields a countermove – attack and defend, strike and counterstrike. Warring adversaries fight it out by the rules of an ancient game. There’s a quiet but palpable tension in the room. Then a single word breaks the silence: “checkmate.”
Learn how Crow Engineering brought chess into the office.

At Crow Engineering, relationships with customers last for years. One company – a long-term customer – recently engaged us to review ways to increase the productivity of its lumber manufacturing process. To assess and identify improvement opportunities, we conducted an efficiency study of the company’s log infeed and breakdown systems.

Recently, Crow Engineering completed an engineering design to replace a raw material infeed conveyor at a building products mill. The mill was connected to a mining operation with a single conveyor to deliver feedstock. The conveyor was built in 1962 and worn out. Any interruption or problems with this conveyor caused both mining and mill production to stop. The owner hired Crow to evaluate the situation and investigate possible solutions to replace, upgrade, or rebuild the raw material feed line.

Recently, Crow was hired by a client in the Northwest that wanted to replace an outdated planer mill. The client had identified a planer line located in the Southeast and hired Crow as the principal consulting engineer and the contractor responsible for disassembling, relocating, adapting, and installing this system in their facility. To accomplish the task, Crow divided the project in several phases.

This office has allowed us to significantly expand our Southeast presence and deepen our engineering and project management expertise. This commitment to the Southeast region has already greatly increased our ability to service both new and existing clients within the forestry and building products industries.