| Back
to News
On April 26, our Chapter will host a tour of the United States Gypsum Company’s Stony Point plant, located on the west bank of the Hudson River just south of Peekskill. When given in past years, the two and a half hour program has included a Power Point presentation on the history of the facility and the process required to manufacture gypsum related products, a fascinating plant tour, dinner and a seminar on USG plaster systems.
The USG Stony Point plant was opened in 1956 and is one of 21 operating USG plants in the US and Canada. The introductory presentation will detail how gypsum used at the plant is mined in Nova Scotia, shipped to the plant’s Hudson River docks, and transported to the rock crushing facility via overhead conveyor belts. Although this supply of natural gypsum is extremely abundant, the newer USG plants now make extensive use of recycled gypsum to minimize the mining required. The plant’s capabilities will be described in detail and include the production of over 32 USG products such as Firecode and Type C Core panels, Water-Resistant and Humitek panels, Shaft Wall Liner panels, Imperial Gypsum Base and regular Sheetrock Brand Gypsum panels from 1/4” to 1”. The two board production lines annually produce approximately 650 million square feet of board, or the equivalent of a four-foot wide GWB board 30,000 miles long.
After being fitted out with official USG hardhats, safety goggles and earplugs, the larger group will break into sub-groups for the plant tour. The first area to be visited is the huge, noisy and vertical facility where the gypsum rocks are received from the boats, crushed, heated and turned into a powder. That powder is then transported, via another overhead conveyor belt, to a second linear building which houses the #1 and #2 board lines. Stretching as far as the eye can see, the board lines are made up of rapidly moving conveyor belts where the gypsum powder is mixed with water, squirted between two sheets of recycled paper, and run out in a single sheet hundreds of feet long.
When it’s reached the spot in the line where it has hardened sufficiently, the boards are cut to slightly longer lengths than their final size and sent into the kiln for a much slower ride to completely cure. Upon emerging from the kiln, the panels are cut to their final size, labeled, stacked and shipped out. From beginning to end of the line, the manufacturing process for a USG board takes less than an hour.
After returning to the USG offices and a quick dinner, USG’s representative Rich Ferrara will present an hour-long seminar on USG plaster systems. Topics covered in past years have included the characteristics of plaster, conventional verses veneer plaster systems, repair of plaster systems and specialty plaster systems. Additional topics of discussion have been the uses of plaster in ancient Egypt, it’s former primary use as an agricultural product (it’s actually edible), when to use different types of lath, whether to use paper or fiberglass tape with different types of lath, when to use bonding agents, proper spacing of control joints and how to test a plaster wall to see if it is ready for paint.
Participants will receive the USG Plaster Systems User’s Guide and the new Centennial Edition of the Gypsum Construction Handbook. Two CES credits will be given for the event, one for the introduction / plant tour and one for the seminar. Richard Ferrara, the USG Architectural Services representative for our chapter area can be reached at 800-874-8870 (ext. 6187) or at rferrara@usg.com for advise on the proper use and installation of USG products.
Ray Beeler , AIA
Return
to Top |
