Globeco still looking at March 1 start-up

Despite a few weather delays and shipping mix-up, Ed Tympkin of Globeco, a building components plant setting up in Rainy River, is still looking to be up and running by March 1.
The hydraulic press for making the insulated panels arrived earlier this month, and Tympkin hoped to have the building full enclosed and the electrical work done by the end of January.
“With one shift [only], we can do 1,000 houses a year,” he said, adding the plant is close to signing its first contract.
“It’s 19 people per shift, and maybe a few more,” he added.
Tympkin described the panel-making process as putting the ice cream in an ice-cream sandwich. Oriented strandboard is put at the top and bottom of the press, then a chemical mixture is placed between the boards to form a polyurethane foam between them.
After 20 minutes, the foam hardens and what you’re left with is an R-20 rated building panel, complete with conduits made out of PVC pipe for electrical outlets.
”You [also] can use the elements on the roof tops and you can use them on the floor,” Tympkin noted. “The key is they have to be square panels.”
The whole process is computer controlled and the panel components must be at certain temperatures to come together properly. Yet Tympkin said the panels are so affordable that one could build a house with them for about $4,000 before adding siding and drywall to cover the OSB.
“Our main market is with Third World countries so we’re looking to export,” he noted. Another huge market exists for OSB/polyurethane panels in Europe, he added, and is starting to open up in southern Ontario.
What makes Rainy River an ideal location for a plant is the fact an OSB mill is only 30 minutes away in Barwick.
“We have the supply available,” Tympkin explained, noting that was “one of the good things that happened” with the creation of Voyageur Panel.
Tympkin said Globeco is funded mainly by local investors. Jan Verhoef and Cor Kross of Holland are other main backers of the project.
“I don’t think there’s anyone else in Ontario or Canada that does this,” he remarked. “It will be the first of its kind in this area.
“I believe it will be a lucrative industry,” he predicted.