It seems hard to believe now that, 20 years ago, MDF had yet to make any real impact in European markets. By this time it had been around, largely in the form of imports from the US and New Zealand, for about five years. Imports from the US – where MDF had already made significant headway – were largely provided by the Medford Corporation, producers of Medite MDF. It was a sign of things to come.

But the magic of this smooth-faced, dense, clean-cutting, premium-priced board was slow in rubbing off. The UK market, in common with the European market as a whole, was largely restricted to a minority of furniture manufacturers. Other furniture producers were prone to question their need for MDF. Why would they need MDF, they queried, when they had survived perfectly well without it?

Although some of the signs for MDF use were encouraging, western Europe’s manufacturing capability remained dormant; in 1983, its total MDF production capacity was around 145,000m3. Then, in September, Medite opened a 150,000m3 MDF plant at Clonmel, in the Republic of Ireland. At that time, it was one of the world’s biggest MDF plants.

Turning point

It was a turning point, according to Geoff Rhodes, one of the UK’s early MDF pioneers. In 1976, while at Seaboard International, he had obtained the first British order for imported Medite. Today, he is marketing and sales director with Weyerhaeuser Europe, current producers of the Medite MDF brand. Of course, he’s also president of The Timber Trade Federation, in itself a measure of how far this product has come from being a new kid on the block to a fully-accepted part of the trade establishment.

“This was a product with many advantages, but a market had to be created,” he said. “We had a pioneering spirit. Twenty years later we’re still pushing just as hard – and still finding new markets and applications.”

Ted Bauer, then sales manager of Medford Corporation, was another visionary, a moving force behind the company’s decision to establish a European manufacturing plant.

At that time he had pointed to MDF achieving annual growth rates in the US of 29%, and prophesied that the combination of increasing population and decreasing prime timber supply would mean a continuing shift to the use of composition boards, and that the “design freedom offered by MDF will allow significant style changes in the furniture industry”.

“Medite’s links with Seaboard provided us with distribution channels internationally and stocks in critical locations,” he said, 20 years later. “We could see the possibilities for Medite. And, in truth, nothing beats a good quality product.”

In 1983, however, there were still grounds for uncertainty. Faith might move mountains; it remained to be seen whether it could move mountains of MDF.

In fact, this concern hardly had time to register. The message about the qualities of MDF had been getting through to furniture and woodworking manufacturers. All that pioneering work had paid off. Although it was still standard MDF that was being sold – moisture-resistant, exterior, flame-retardant, zero-formaldehyde et al were still over the horizon – its virtues couldn’t be ignored.

Moreover, the approach and the economics of furniture production were changing. Manufacturers had begun to seek a board with smooth, splinter-free edges to which wood veneer and foil could be directly applied. Furthermore, MDF was ideal for deep routing. So cabinet doors, wrapped in wood-

patterned PVC appeared, first in their thousands, then in their millions. In addition, MDF provided the kind of smooth, ever-flat surface that, once veneered or laminated, was ideal for shelving, worktops and desk surfaces. For the next few years, the main difficulty was to make MDF fast enough to keep up with the demands of the market.

The figures tell an amazing story. For 1983, total installed MDF production in western Europe was 295,000m3. Less than three years later it had more than doubled. By 1990 it was close to 2 million m3. Today, in Europe alone, it is well over 12 million m3.

&#8220We always tried to keep abreast of the market in terms of where there might be new, profitable applications”

Geoff Rhodes, Weyerhaeuser marketing and sales director

Medite remains one of Europe’s strongest MDF brands and the Clonmel facility, having recently discarded that first epoch-making plant, has expanded its annual capacity to 400,000m3.

Breathless ride

“It has been a breathless ride,” said Mr Rhodes. “We learned a few hard lessons but we learned them quickly. And we always tried to keep abreast of the market in terms of where there might be new, profitable applications.” In all of this, he said, a most outstanding feature has been an unwavering team effort. “We’ve always been fortunate in the people that have worked for Medite – employees, agents and distributors. Without their combined efforts we couldn’t have achieved half as much”.

Medite’s early attention to the construction industries has been highly significant. Medite’s determination to develop specialist MDF products paid off and now they account for a sizeable slice of Clonmel’s production.

For example, the interior walls of shops, offices, banks, museums, concert halls, and commercial or cultural premises of virtually any sort, are increasingly provided by flame-retardant MDF. “MDF is winning the battle over conventional, previously established products because it is easier to handle and to use, it’s a creative and versatile product, and it provides a more economic solution,” said Mr Rhodes.

“For instance, Medite FR is available in Class 1 or Class 0 versions, in standard or very large-size panels, in thicknesses up to 18mm. It can be used equally to provide straightforward partitioning or for floor-to-ceiling storage cupboards that double as the required flame-retardant partitions between offices.

Applications

“Today, MDF can do almost anything. With Medite, we’ve lost count of the number of applications. All that’s needed is the imaginative input of the designer or architect.”

The fact is, he said, that many manufacturers and specifiers are still coming to MDF afresh, and still coming to terms with it as a highly versatile material. Others remain wary of it as a ‘new’ product – when, in fact, it has been tried, tested and proven itself for many years in the most demanding situations. For example, several Medite Exterior MDF shopfronts in the UK date back nearly 15 years and are still looking good.

Mr Rhodes admits that, despite all the media publicity for MDF, there are still large sectors, particularly in the building industry, that remain unaware of its wide-ranging properties.

When Maxwell Hutchinson, a leading architect and broadcaster, spoke at the TTJ Awards lunch in September, he issued a clarion call for the provision of more information on wood products. Mr Rhodes recalls initially dismissing any idea that a major architect wouldn’t be fully aware of MDF and its properties – before swiftly dispatching Medite’s technical literature by the next post.

As justification, he recalls talking to two television pundits, stars of popular interior DIY/makeover programmes, and strong protagonists of MDF. He mentioned flame-retardant and exterior Medite and was met with blank stares. The stars’ knowledge had not gone beyond standard MDF. “Never take anything for granted. There’s still a big job to do in ensuring awareness of MDF, in all its varieties, among key audiences.”