Product a hit

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New Zealand could emulate Scandinavia and create a first-world economy on the back of value-added timber products. That’s the dream of one entrepreneur who has banked on a product that helps.

Nigel Sharplin (left) at a logging site with contractor Jason Brook.
Nigel Sharplin (left) at a logging site with contractor Jason Brook.

NIGEL SHARPLIN is one of New Zealand’s fast-rising high-tech designers. He has produced Navman accessories, world-first wheelchair remotes, parking meter systems, chip-card devices and now a range of tools to find out which pine trees are best for building construction.

Delivering high-tech products

After a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Canterbury, Sharplin joined Fisher & Paykel working on the groundbreaking Smart Drive washing machine. This, he says, taught him the philosophy and values that drive the approach of inFact, the technology development company he founded. Events moved quickly after that.

‘After I set up inFact, I was invited to meet Industrial Research Limited and the Carter Holt Harvey (CHH) subsidiary Fibre-gen to help productionise the Hitman HM200 timber-testing product,’ he says.

‘Fibre-gen asked us to develop the Hitman ST300 tool, and we ended up taking a 20% stake in the business. When Graham Hart bought CHH, management sold Fibre-gen to inFact and Peter Carter.’

Sharplin says that a thinking approach to the creation of game-changing innovative new products customers want will help build a strong first-world economy.

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Automatic tree measuring

Sharplin and fellow director Peter Carter have secured 27 patent registrations for the use of acoustics in the grading of green wood involving their Hitman HM200 and ST300 hand tools.

The Hitman PH330 product, their latest invention, measures the strength of felled trees automatically while they are being harvested and sends them to the right mill for processing. According to Scion, it will create an estimated $200 million of new value for the forestry sector in New Zealand.

The Hitman PH330’s development comes as knowledge grows about the benefits of constructing high-rise buildings using engineered wood products (EWP) such as laminated veneer lumber and cross-laminated timber panels. Both are manufactured in New Zealand.

‘A 7-storey timber structure survived the equivalent of nine Kobe earthquakes on a Japanese earthquake simulator platform with no discernible damage,’ Sharplin says.

‘Wood is the ultimate resilient and renewable resource for construction.’

The Hitman range enables forest owners to segregate the timber for wood processors. ‘We must, however, make decisions at the point of harvest based on the value of the timber and not just the commodity-based volume of it.’

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Value adding before exporting

Wood processing and manufacturing is New Zealand’s third-largest export sector at $2.5 billion a year, and if log exports are added, it’s almost on a par with meat exports.

‘By extracting the highest-value wood from our forests and processing this in New Zealand for value-added export products we can ensure a strong forest industry.’

He says Scandinavia shows that countries can sustainably fuel a first-world economy using wood products. ‘They put their minds to the task as nations and made the decision to create a zero emissions economy. We can do this if we are prepared to make a commitment.

‘There is a 50% increase in the volume of plantation wood coming online in 2020. We must get organised now so that, when the wood is harvested, it can be turned into high-value logs and wood products and not simply be sold to the commodity market.

‘If we take on this challenge of enhancing the value of the forest, we can lift the forest wood sector from $5 billion volume to $12 billion with the increased volumes,’ Sharplin says.

The Hitman is already a hit. The technology recently took out the Innovation in Agribusiness and Environment Award category at the 2015 New Zealand Innovators Awards.

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Nigel Sharplin (left) at a logging site with contractor Jason Brook.
Nigel Sharplin (left) at a logging site with contractor Jason Brook.

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