Oakdale, La. — In a ceremony attended by state, regional and local dignitaries, Martin Companies officially opened the Martco Oakdale Oriented Strand Board facility on April 23, 2007.

The newest of its five manufacturing facilities, Martin Companies’ Oakdale Oriented Strand Board (OSB) plant covers a 210-acre site, and is the largest OSB manufacturing facility in North America, the company reports. The Oakdale complex includes more than 670,000 square feet of buildings, 14 acres of covered warehouse storage, and three rail sidings. Two 105-foot-tall, 15-ton Andritz gantry cranes tower over a log yard that spans the length of five football fields and can hold 40,000 cords of wood in inventory.

Martin Companies’ Oakdale OSB plant is capable of producing a full range of OSB products, from sheathing to oversize panels in thicknesses from 3/8” to 1 1/8”. Raw panels are formed at up to 140 feet per minute and are delivered as 12-foot x 26-foot sheets that are then cut to meet a range of common and specialty applications. Throughput is anticipated at 850 MMSF of panels per year.

In addition to making Martin Companies’ current line-up of TuffStrand OSB products, the Oakdale plant also will be able to produce 23/32” SIF, oversize, web stock, rim board, PET sidewall panels, as well as Martin Companies’ proprietary Eclipse radiant-barrier panel and The GRID Panel System. These OSB products are sold primarily to light-construction markets for roofing, sidewalls and flooring applications.

For more information, visit www.nowack-beer.com/martin.