The panels industry is among the most technically innovative arms of the timber sector. This is partly attributed to the ultra-competitive nature of the market, partly the fact that there’s more scope for development of this ‘man-made’ wood product. Whatever the reason, each year sees a plethora of launches and upgrades pushing back the performance and design frontiers in MDF, OSB, plywood and particleboards.
In addition, the past 12-18 months have seen continued major investment in production technology at some of the key players in the market, aimed variously at boosting output, raising efficiency and increasing production flexibility to meet the demands of a fast-moving market and demanding customer base.
According to Egger (UK) Ltd, there has been a “hive of activity” in the past year, with the company setting itself the goal of “broadening its product portfolio through a more flexible approach to logistics”.
Co-ordinated package
A key launch was the Kaleidoscope range of “value engineered” matching post-forming grade laminate, melamine-faced chipboard, MDF and edging products. The new co-ordinated package is designed to give Egger a “marketing and sales edge” in the growing commercial interior specification market.
The company has also invested heavily in the launch of the Radius worktop collection which features a tight 3mm profile. The new range ties in with the current vogue in the interior design community to achieve a square-edged appearance for both modern and traditional kitchens.
Egger has also focused on the thorny issue of CE marking. While this will not be mandatory until April 2004, the company has moved early and claims to have been the first board supplier in the UK to CE mark across the range of chipboard, MDF and OSB products.
“We wanted to give customers and specifiers time to understand the purpose of CE marking and see its relevance in terms of what products can and cannot be legally used for and the subsequent impact it will have on the specification and use of products,” says Egger.
And capital spending has also been under way at the company’s Hexham plant, with new storage, handling and racking equipment purchased to cope with an increased product portfolio.
New MDF
Among the latest news from Weyerhaeuser Europe is that it has brought its new production line at Clonmel – which represents an investment of a mighty US$39m (£24.5m) – up to full production. And there’s more news connected to the new facility because it’s being used to produce the just-launched MediteLITE range.
The new MDF variant, which was unveiled at the recent Interzum exhibition in Cologne, is described as very similar in characteristics and performance to standard Medite, but it is 20% lighter.
Like standard Medite, MediteLITE boasts smooth surfaces and a consistency that results in clean, precise machining without splintering or breakout. But the lighter weight, says Weyerhaeuser, means easier handling, reduced transport costs and “markedly less wear on machine tools”.
“It’s also easier to screw, staple and nail and offers uniform, cross-panel appearance,” says the company.
Weyerhaeuser reports that the new range has already attracted considerable interest for use in office furniture, wardrobe doors, shelving, furniture components, mouldings, mobile home and caravan fixtures, exhibition stands and shopfittings. The range of dimensions and thicknesses should also give it a following in the DIY sector.
At Weyerhaeuser’s Mediland MDF facility in south-west France, there has also been major investment in the overhaul of both the press line and ancillary systems. According to the company this has boosted output and product quality and also given the factory the opportunity to bring out new products, including Mediland XL, another lightweight MDF supplied in 40, 45 and 50mm thicknesses.
Environmental credibility
A vital area SmartPly has turned its attention to this year is the environmental credibility of its products in response to growing awareness of the issues in the market place.
“Users of timber-based products, such as architects, specifiers, construction companies and housebuilders are becoming more sensitive to the environmental and social responsibility polices when purchasing materials,” says the company. “Central government, local authority and industry procurement policies also increasingly insist on using environmentally-approved timber which conforms to independently recognised certification schemes, while consumer understanding of environmentally sustainable timber products is increasing as initiatives such as wood. for good and the latest Greenpeace demonstrations about government timber procurement take effect.”
SmartPly’s response to the rising tide of green awareness has been the introduction of a range of OSB with a minimum of 90% content based on timber certified under the Forest Stewardship Council scheme.
The company believes FSC certification is “increasingly becoming the leading internationally recognised standard assuring buyers that timber used in wood-based products come from environmentally and socially responsibly managed forestry”. And it claims that the 90% FSC content level is the highest of any commercially available OSB worldwide.
SmartPly has achieved FSC chain of custody accreditation not just for raw materials, but also for its manufacturing and distribution processes. “This ensures that certified material is tracked from receipt of raw material through to the delivery of the finished product,” says the company.
SmartPly’s parent Coillte Teoranta (the Irish forestry board) has also committed itself to FSC compliance.
“Coillte has adopted sustainable forest management as its guiding principle both now and for the future, ensuring all timber used in the manufacturer of SmartPly products is sourced from carefully-managed sustainable forestry,” says SmartPly.
Investment at Nexfor
Over the past 18 months, Nexfor has wrapped up an £18m investment at its Cowie plant. Ostensibly, the company has been replacing an older generation particleboard production line but, it explains, there was more to it than that. Its total capital spend in the past five years has been £100m and 60% of that has gone on environmental improvements. Similarly a third of the latest outlay has been targeted at reducing Cowie’s environmental ‘footprint’. The upgrade of the plant includes new facilities to clean recycled fibre and reduce its dependence on virgin material and introduce lower energy drying. The end result of the development, says Nexfor, is a “better, cleaner, more consistent finished product produced at lower cost with less impact on the environment”.
The improvements at Cowie have also included investment in process control and monitoring equipment which have led to record high levels of machine use and record lows in scrap generation.
The Cowie site was also recently certified under ISO 9001:2000 and it and Nexfor’s other two UK facilities are now “actively pursuing” accreditation to CE mark their products.
Of course, the laminate flooring market has given panel producers a major boost in recent years, and if latest moves at Kronospan are anything to go by, the market still offers considerable potential.
The company has just spent £3m on a new flooring line at its Chirk plant, boosting annual capacity from 11 million m2 to 19 million m2. Kronospan says the line will also boost the factory’s flexibility in terms of both production and its ability to supply variable load sizes, down to a single pallet of a particular flooring line.
The new facility is up and running and the company says that it has already invested in a range of new press plate designs to broaden its product selection still further, especially in the area of textured finish products.
