Doors made out of wheat?Doors made out of wheat?
Yes. And manufacturing work going into creating that end product is happening right here in Brainerd.
Farmers who grow wheat are finding a new demand for the wheat straw fiber left after the grain is harvested. Wheat board is being used for agri-fiber door cores. Naturally resistant to decay, the wheat straw fiber has the lasting characteristics of wood.
Lexington Manufacturing Inc.s Door Components Division, in Brainerd, is using the agri-fiber core as it makes door components using Mankato-based Environ wheat board. Environ in Mankato makes wheat board with a non-formaldehyde resin system that is one of the most water resistant.
Lexington Manufacturing, with a facility just south of the Crow Wing County Fairgrounds, makes components for the door and window industry and offers precision machine molding and painting. In 2006, Lexington expanded into a nearby facility on Industrial Park Road - the former Image Rotomolding plant.
Kim Halverson, Door Component Inc. plant manager, said the plant doesnt produce doors but makes door components. The door cores are solid and have top and side features known as stiles and rails, which make architectural door components for door manufacturers. Any type of wood may be put on as a skin for the door core. A typical use for the fire-rated agri-fiber door cores, built to withstand 20, 45 and 60 minutes of fire, includes interior hotel and office doors. An additional mineral door core is rated for a 90-minute ability to withstand fire. To be fire rated, the doors are tested after being placed in a new cinder block wall and put in front of an 1,800-degree furnace for the specified time and then expected to survive a fire hose blast. Even after the hardware has melted and the exterior is burned away, the door core remains steadfast, Halverson said.
Halverson said the company didnt expect its agri-fiber door core customers to establish a growing demand for non fire-rated doors. Work went into redesigning the plant to handle the increased demand. A continuous core line, where product flows from one station to another, was in place and going last August.
Lexington wanted to find a replacement for the mineral product it was importing from China and wanted material it could obtain locally. The brittle mineral product is dusty, making it a challenge for air-handling units, and the mineral product created great wear and tear on tools and machine equipment. The weak dollar, communication obstacles and a desire for a green product went into Lexingtons move from a light-weight mineral core and an imported flax to the wheat from Mankato.
Halverson said a company goal is to create a wheat fiber door core that is meets the 90-minute fire test. One of the added benefits listed with the wheat fiber is that no chemicals are added, its recyclable and renewable.
You could eat it, Halverson said.
The story of how the wheat board began is a fascinating one. A young school girl in Mankato took ground up paper and Elmers glue for a recycling science project. Halverson said one of the teachers thought it was an interesting idea and brought it to the engineering group at Minnesota State University, Mankato. The idea led to researching other resources that could be used in a process to manufacture building materials and furniture and the finding that the wheat bi-product did work well.
In an agricultural area, Mankato had a local source of wheat and researchers saw a benefit to the area farmers and an ability to create manufacturing jobs. That idea proved to have real-life applications and met both those goals.
Lexington is optimistic about the agri-fiber core product line and its future here. Lexington recently gave a plant update and tour to Brainerd Lakes Area Development Corp. board members. At the plant, the Brainerd Fire Chief Fred Underhill and Inspector Keith Bachmann, gave a presentation on the International 2007 Fire Code Adoption and implementation in the Brainerd area.
