Releasing Resins

In the 1990s, due to rapid growth in the wood based panels industry in Europe, a natural step for Fusoni was to establish a production factory in Europe. This the company decided to set up in the owner's home city of Oviedo, in the Asturias region of Spain.

Fusoni's factory in Spain has considerably expanded the company's facilities, offering effective release agents for panel production, as well as a full range of additives for decorative paper impregnation.

With the growth in the South American market from the early 2000s, the owners of Fusoni decided to build a production plant in Brazil as well, in order to supply the company's products to South American panel producers.

The company says its philosophy is to fulfill costumers' demands by supplying effective products with very stable quality and competitive prices.

"Cooperation is oriented towards relations with the customers, as well as technical and commercial support for our business partners," said Mr Alfredo Garcia Arias, president and general manager of Fusoni.

"The main focus of our company is the research and development of new additives and continuous improvement of products and service quality. We understand very well that nowadays the most important thing is to have the best solutions with competitive prices to support our customers.

"We are trying to be a partner to our clients and to build a close relationship with them, by hearing and following their demands. This is the basis of success for both sides."

Fusoni says it is dedicated to the idea of creating solutions with its partners.

"Our laboratories in Spain and Mexico have accumulated decades of extremely fruitful experience in release agents and process additives for the industries we serve and our technical representatives rely on this extended knowledge to analyse the needs and processes of our customers in depth," said Mr Garcia Arias. "We are in a privileged position to comply with our most important mission, which is to improve the existing procedures and to add value to the specific production of our customers. In addition to this, we also maintain long-term partnerships with a number of experts and academic institutions."

After 30 years on the market, Fusoni says it is a company with those three production plants (Mexico, Spain and Brazil) and about 60 employees. The company is also represented worldwide by its distributors in China, India and the US, as well as representative agents in eastern Europe, France and the Netherlands.

Mr Garcia Arias, who is also the manager of the Spanish factory, said: "The main product in our Spanish factory is a release agent for pMDI bonded boards such as OSB or MDF.

"We are trying to fulfill customers' needs in relation to specific production conditions and solutions for release agents. We have at least four effective release agents for pMDI bonded materials which are suitable for different production conditions and application systems. But we are still working on improvements and further developments of new products".

For OSB/MDF bonded with pMDI, Fusoni offers several types of release agents for application with roller systems or spraying devices.

When applying release agents with a rolling system in the production of pMDI bonded boards, the panel manufacturer has the choice of three types of release agents; that choice depends on specific conditions in his panel production process.

For application with spraying installations, Fusoni says it is able to offer one effective release agent with increased viscosity and high solid content.

Within the company's product range are release agents used in the production of particleboard, MDF and doorskin panels, bonded with UF or MUF glues. The main advantages claimed for these products are: avoiding sticking problems; improving belt and press plate cleaning; obtaining a more compact surface; reducing pressing time; and improving the panel's density profile.

Fusoni says that it can also offer additives for the production of impregnated decorative papers for LPL and HPL processes, such as hardeners, wetting agents, release agents, anti-dust agents, anti-blocking agents, a flow improver, a gloss improver, an anti-bacterial agent and other specialised chemicals.

"Working in exports has helped us to develop a very accurate logistics system for delivering all our goods in the best condition, worldwide, just in time. Also, all our products and processes comply with all the international standards on environmental protection and meet our customers' requirements on industrial safety and health," said Mr Cesar Garcia Arias, general manager of the Spanish plant. Fusoni is also involved in industries other than panels, such as PU automotive, food, roto-moulding, smelting and concrete.

Through work on product development, and continuous building of good relationships with its customers, Fusoni says it has been able to achieve a stable position on the market and to become a business partner supplying additives to the biggest players in the wood sector.

The company says these include the Kronospan, Egger, Finsa and Swiss-Krono groups, as well as Daiken and Yildiz Entegre.