In December 2019, Structurlam Mass Timber Corporation, the leading mass timber manufacturer in North America, announced the expansion of its operations into the United States, with a plant in Conway, Arkansas, set to open in mid-2021. The Canadian-based company, in which Walmart has made an investment, planned to spend $90 million to purchase, retrofit, and equip a former steel plant, thereby creating 130 new jobs and sourcing softwood lumber from Arkansas-grown Southern Pine trees.
Last month (May 2021), I was pleased to visit the new plant and see our Hundegger machines in the final installation stages! Hundegger is proud to be the CNC partner in the new Structurlam CLT factory in Conway, and we are proud to be a part of the Structurlam and Walmart mass timber products.
The photos [See PDF or View in Full Issue] include the Hundegger UFA machine, 1of 3 CNC machines specifically built for Structurlam. The UFA was designed to square and profile CLT floor and roof panel elements and finish processing them on the underside.
And why Walmart? Because Walmart, the first customer of Structurlam’s Conway facility, plans to use more than 1.1 million cubic feet of Arkansas-grown and Arkansas-produced mass timber in its new Home Office campus in Bentonville, Arkansas, making it the largest campus project in the U.S. using mass timber.
When I first started selling Hundegger CNC Wood Construction saws, I never dreamed that the industry would grow into what it is today. Building with wood has been recognized as a sustainable and value-adding product, and now the next generation of Mass Timber construction is amplifying those benefits even more. Not only is the raw material locally sourced from North American forests, but combining that resource with the proper equipment takes it to the next level. Building with wood is efficient and components can be assembled off-site then installed on-site safer and faster than other systems. Our Hundegger customers love wood too, almost as much as they love Hundegger’s accuracy and the “nesting” ability that optimizes material use for even better utilization of wood. When you’re ready to grow your business with CNC machines, contact Hundegger.