Apr 12

Virtual Plant Tour Focus Group at Element5 Co.

On March 25th, 2021, we hosted our first plant tour focus group under our new name, Wood Manufacturing Cluster of Ontario.  

Founder of Element5 Patrick Chouinard was on hand for opening remarks: “We’re in the midst of a revolution in the construction industry (in North America) that began in Europe 30 or more years ago…”
Plant Tour Focus Group - Element5
Chouinard continued to illustrate Element5’s growth from its roots in Ripon, Quebec, and how it is poised for today’s market and beyond.

The event featured a virtual tour of Element5, the most fully automated mass timber manufacturing facility in the world, with multilevel staging of materials, digital tracking and optimization, automated systems to carry out cutting, stacking, buffering, gluing, curing, and much more.

Interested in watching the recording? It is available to WMCO members in our members-only video resource area of our website. Click here to login!

Plant Tour Focus Group - walking through Element5
The event had a large turnout with a wide spread of manufacturers that also garnered the attraction of representatives from Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) and Innovation in Forestry Industry Technology (IFIT), The Woodworking Centre of Ontario, Conestoga College, and The Centre for Research & Innovation in the Bio-Economy (CRIBE).

Do you have a wood manufacturing facility that you would like to host a Plant Tour Focus Group? Do you have a challenge in your business you would like to collaborate with the wood industry to solve? If so, let us know!