It is dynamic in that visitors to the site can vote for the research topics proposed; the number of votes received can change the list order. In addition, votes cast some time ago have a lower weighting than those cast recently. Consequently, the list order changes regularly.
The top three research topics at the time of writing are: understanding formaldehyde emission from panels; ecological glues for panel manufacture; lightweight panels.
I have covered formaldehyde emission in previous columns and the second topic is also linked to the first, so I will address the third topic in this issue. Lightweight panel is the term usually used to describe a product that has relatively thin panels for faces, which are joined together by a low density core. The core material is most commonly a paper-based honeycomb, but can equally be made from aluminium honeycomb, low density wood such as balsa or cork, and rigid plastic or metal foams. These products are used extensively in the making of furniture – especially for boat, camper van and caravan building, where weight is of considerable importance.
These lightweight panels are macro-composites in that they are made by combining several different materials. The utopia sought after by panel manufactures is to make truly low-weight products in one step.
The lowest density MDF I have seen on sale is around 500kg/m3 – I would be happy to hear from anyone who makes something lighter! However, this is still rather heavy compared to most of the macro-composites described above.
Throughout the panel manufacturing sector there has been a tendency to reduce panel weight in order to reduce manufacturing costs and to address the market desire for panels that are easier to handle, cut and shape.
MDF, OSB and particleboards are pressed to high densities in order that the small droplets of glue applied to the wood elements have a chance of sticking two or more elements together. If they were not pressed together then too many of the droplets would harden without forming a bridge between particles and the product would be weak. Consequently, when weight is reduced we normally reduce the board’s mechanical properties too.
In theory, if we could perfectly align the particles in a mattress, like a jigsaw, then we could make strong panels that have the same density as the original raw material and with very little adhesive. Although this is not possible (yet!), careful attention to particle size distribution in the furnish, together with excellent resin distribution, has enabled some manufacturers to lower their product density without detriment to mechanical properties.
The reductions in density may be only 10- 15kg/m3 but this adds up to a lot of material saved over the course of a year – for example around 6,000 tons for a modern, high-capacity production line of 400,000m3/year.
Clearly the light-weight panel is the way to go.

Many people will associate MDI (Methylene Diphenyl di-isocyanate) resins with the manufacture of OSB, but in fact this versatile binder can be applied to the production of other composite wood products, including MDF and particleboard, says MDI manufacturer Huntsman.
Used in the manufacture of panels such as OSB, MDF, particleboard and lightweight wood fibre insulation products, MDI technology has been around for over 30 years but has sometimes been considered a high-cost alternative to conventional formaldehyde based resins. However, Iain Stanton, Composite Wood Panel (CWP) marketing manager for Europe and Asia at Huntsman, will tell you this simply isn’t the case.
“MDI is a tried and tested technology and we have been able to prove time and time again that it can increase panel performance and is an affordable option for manufacturers of composite wood products,” he says. “For me, the reason why it has taken so long for the industry to really wake up to the opportunities MDI presents is a lack of understanding, which is why Huntsman is dedicated to communicating the real life applications and tangible benefits it offers our customers so that manufacturers can move forward.”
In order to understand why MDI is such a versatile and efficient binder, it is helpful to start with the science behind the technology, suggests Mr Stanton.
MDI provides a very strong bond with the wood particles or strands as it has a reaction with the wood itself, when put under intense heat, creating a chemical weld. This is a different and superior type of bond to the mechanical weld that formaldehyde based products produce, says Mr Stanton; in the case of formaldehyde products, it is clear to see where one material starts and another ends, he says.
However, MDI bonds by forming a diffusion interphase, the resin spreads over the surface of the wood and penetrates into cracks, cell lumen and even cell walls, he explains. Penetration depths of up to 1mm are readily achieved, which is well beyond the three-cell depths commonly assumed to be needed for wood resins to provide adequate adhesive strength.
In the diffusion interphase the MDI effectively becomes one with the wood and this,  long with the penetration and the spread, is responsible for the high quality performance expected from MDI bonded wood, including the resistance to thickness swell and the high strengths, says the marketing manager.
“MDI can help manufacturers of composite wood products such as medium density fibreboard (MDF) and particleboard to achieve a more stable processing window; improved material performance in terms of internal bond strength; and increased protection against thickness swell, while reducing production costs.” says Mr Stanton.
“But to really bring this to life for potential new customers, Huntsman has a technical support team on hand that can offer a realistic trial within manufacturers’ own production plants. Our wood products development centre tests MDI resins with the specific source of wood that each client uses in order to create an individual formula, while our portable equipment allows us to take this direct to them to trial and see how it works before they make the investment.
“In fact, we believe we are the only MDI producer to have this support framework in place. We believe that a ‘try before you buy’ approach is a crucial part of the process for customers considering the switch to MDI. As a testament to the success of the trial process, during the 17 years I have been in the composite wood panel industry, I cannot remember a single time when a client has tried MDI for OSB or MDF panel manufacture and then reverted back to the method they used before. For me, that has to speak volumes about both our confidence in this technology and about the results our customers see when they make this change.”
Huntsman says the benefits that MDI, with its strong chemical weld, can offer manufacturers within the production of wood panels include the following:

• Increased mill productivity and creation of better operating parameters and savings in drying, blending and pressing
• Increased tolerance to a variety of wood species
• Increase in the panels’ physical property performance
• Increased ability to manufacture speciality products
• Reduced blender cleaning
• Fast curing
• Ease of adding biocides or fire retardants
• Finished panels that are smooth, light and more natural in appearance
• Improved moisture resistance
• Excellent strength-to-weight ratio
• Compared with traditional formaldehyde options, MDI resins require a lower dosage, making them a cost-effective binding option when comparing on a cost-per-cubic-metre basis.

The case for MDI has been coming into its own over the past year, due to new stringent legislation which requires wood panel producers to limit the levels of formaldehyde emitted from their products. As a result, the industry is entering into a debate as to how to meet these new standards, with MDI entering the spotlight as the no-added-formaldehyde solution, says Huntsman.
Mr Stanton explains: “For example, in America, the use of MDI in the manufacture of MDF will make it ‘exempt’ within the requirements of Section 93120.3 of the California Air Resources Board (CARB) standards. The level I legislation was implemented from 1st January 2009, placing strict limits on the level of permissible formaldehyde emitted from wood based panels and will become even more restrictive in 2011, when CARB level II comes into effect for particleboard and MDF production.
“A number of initiatives outside the US have been generated as a result of the first phase, such as the development of the EPF-S standard in Europe, as major furniture producers are realising the need to be more aware and selective about the products they produce and sell,” he says.
“Also, in Asia, where the manufacture of MDF and particleboard is more widespread, using MDI products like Huntsman’s I-BOND resins, means that manufacturers’ products can be classified as both CARB I and CARB II compliant, as well as becoming Japanese F**** compliant,” continues Mr Stanton.
“It is clear to see the momentum that these regulations are gathering worldwide and we are seeing more producers coming to us to try MDI technology for themselves now while they can fully evaluate the advantages of making the change sooner rather than later.”
Huntsman also says it has a unique range of internal and external release solutions called I-Release that can be used when manufacturing OSB, MDF, particleboard and wood fibre insulation board.
It says that, developed to complement the company’s I-BOND range of MDI resins, there is a release system to suit every type of panel, and for both internal and external application, to ensure a smooth and efficient production process. For example, for the manufacture of MDF, Huntsman has developed two groups of release agents. The first can be applied internally to the wood fibres, mixed in-line with the resin and added directly to the blowline. In this situation, it is used in higher quantities but there are no emissions as a result.
The second option is an external release agent that can be sprayed directly onto the press belt of continuous presses. Because it is applied directly to the press belt, a lower dosage is required, which is claimed to make this system very cost-effective.
Huntsman says it is able to evaluate its customer’s external release agent needs so that individual requirements can be identified and the right solutions provided, using its unique PWM (Pulse Width Modulated) trial equipment. The dedicated technical team is on hand throughout the process. In this way, Huntsman says it is able to show manufacturers that MDI resins and their release agents are cost-effective and will deliver tangible benefits within the production of composite wood panels.

Nobody needed reminding that this was an economically tough year as the delegates gathered at La Cité Internationale des Congrès conference centre in Nantes, France, for the thirteenth edition of the conference which began as the European Panel Products Symposium (EPPS) in northWales in the UK in 1997.
Opening the symposium, Robert Elias, commercial manager of the BioComposites Centre based at the University of Wales Bangor, and organizers of IPPS, admitted that finding sponsors for the social events had proved impossible this year.
However, that did not seem to dampen the enthusiasm of the delegates who made the most of the excellent restaurant facilities in the historic city of Nantes.
Neither, of course, did it affect the quantity or quality of the papers presented in a packed three-day programme.
The keynote speaker to open IPPS was Kris Wijnendaele, secretary general of both the European Panel Federation (EPF) and the European federation of the plywood industry (FEIC).
He talked about ‘Market developments and challenges for the future’ and presented the statistics for the European woodworking industries as a whole.
“The industry has been hit very hard by the [economic] crisis,” said the speaker, stating that in 2008, particleboard production fell 8.5% on average, while MDF fell 8.3% (the first time there has been a decrease) and OSB 9.5%.
For plywood production, the figure for 2008 in the EU producing countries fell 7.2% compared to 2007, although Russian FEIC members showed an increase of over 21%.
“There are signs that the bottom has been reached in some countries and sectors but it will be some time before we see a recovery,” said Mr Wijnendaele. He went on to point out the rise in costs in 2008, including wood (+4%), resin (+20%), energy (+30%) and transport (+6%).
“Who is helping the woodworking sector in Europe?” asked the secretary general. “The wood sector is largely forgotten while, for example, Canada supports its wood industry.”
Mr Wijnendaele went on to suggest that the EU could: issue general communications on the positive role of wood based products in the fight against climate change; reduce VAT tariffs for residential construction/renovation and ‘Kyoto-friendly’ products; give rewards to consumers for replacing old kitchens, bathrooms etc (like the motor car replacement schemes in some countries); and encourage wood recycling.
“Our industry has a very low general credibility with politicians and regulatory bodies and it is up to the industry [to improve this],” concluded Mr Wijnendaele.
Session 1, ‘Sustainability and sustainable buildings’ was kicked off by John Guerin of Weyerhaeuser Products Ltd, Belgium.
His paper aimed to set a benchmark for the forest products industry for the 21st century, focusing on sustainable forest management (SFM) and certification, sustainability of supply and other key drivers. He used Weyerhaeuser’s mill in Uruguay to illustrate his point, as the company now has 150,000ha growing there, mainly eucalyptus, and aims to have 200,000ha by 2012. The product is  sustainably-sourced plywood.
“The market reality is that markets for sustainable, certified products are growing,” concluded Dr Guerin.
‘Materials and their contribution towards the sustainable buildings LEED approach’ was the subject of Aurelio Ramirez Zargosa’s presentation. He is the founder and president of the Spain Green Building Council (GBC). The council’s members are made up of any companies related to construction, plus federal, local and state governments. It is one of a number of GBCs worldwide.
The acronym LEED stands for ‘Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design’ and is a system for the design, construction and operation of green buildings in terms of water and energy efficiency and recycling.
“We are continually striving to make the good practice of today the standard practice of tomorrow,” said the speaker. The next presenter was Claire Cornillier from the French technological institute FCBA. Her subject was ‘environmental product declaration (EPD) of wood based panels: An answer to sustainable building requirements’.
Ms Cornillier reported on a three-year study commissioned by the French wood based panel producers’ union (UIPP), completed in June 2009. She explained that the EPD is based on life cycle analysis (LCA) and the goal of the study was to produce generic environmental data about wood based panels manufactured in France, using particleboard, OSB and MDF/HDF.
The study produced 12 EPDs for French panel products and concluded that the production process accounts for over 90% of its environmental impact and that to improve the panels’ eco-profile, the industry should focus on glue production as this accounts for up to 50% of the production stage in terms of non-renewable energy.
Dennis Jones of Woodknowledge Wales and the Building Research Establishment Wales looked at sustainability tools used in the UK for construction materials and products and concluded that: “wood and panel products, due to their manufacture from a renewable material, have good to excellent environmental and thermal ratings [and are increasingly viewed] as a sustainable construction material”.
That concluded Session 1. Session 2 was on ‘Indoor air quality and formaldehyde’.
The keynote presentation was by Maureen Gorsen from California, who spoke on ‘Green chemistry: policy and regulation’ and described some of the many initiatives of that state in the pursuit of ‘green’ goals. In this industry, we know all about their response to formaldehyde of course.
Filipe Silva of Porto University, Portugal, described his study of formaldehyde scavengers for the production of low formaldehyde-emission particleboards.
“In order to produce wood particleboard with low formaldehyde emission, there are two strategies,” suggested Mr Silva.
The first was to use resins with a low formaldehyde/urea molar ratio, but this has disadvantages in terms of panel properties; the second is to use chemical scavengers to restrict formaldehyde emission directly in the panels.
Mr Silva reported that, of the possible scavengers tested, a urea solution and a starch offered the most promising results, while a scavenger called Lionite and a sodium metabisulphite scavenger both had good performance.
‘Liquified wood as a formaldehyde scavenger for wood based panels’ was the title of the presentation by Sergej Medved of the University of Lubljana, Slovenia.
The liquefied wood was made from fines of poplar, oak, spruce and beech by a process using polyhydric alcohols.
Mr Medved reported that the addition of liquefied wood at up to 30% did produce improvements in formaldehyde emissions, although there were some negative effects on panel characteristics.
Baha Guezguez of the local École Supérieure du Bois in Nantes (‘home’ of our regular contributor Dr Mark Irle), gave her first-ever presentation, very ably, in English.
Her subject was ‘An investigation of the origin of formaldehyde found in poplar veneer’. This was just the veneers, pressed together without the addition of glue. Ms Guezguez found that an upper limit of release of 100 microgrammes/ m2/hour was an appropriate target for plywood; that wood, though a source of formaldehyde, contributes little to overall emissions from a panel; and that wood can act as a ‘trap’ for formaldehyde and thus has the potential to regulate formaldehyde in the air; and that moisture content influences formaldehyde emission.
That brought an interesting and informative first day of IPPS to a close, followed by a poster presentation.
Day two, Session 3: ‘Plywood and laminated products’ began with a paper from Marek Grzeskiewicz of the University of Warsaw, Poland, on ‘Physical and mechanical properties and burning behaviour of beech plywood made of thermally modified veneers’.
He reported that such veneers reduced the mechanical properties of plywood made from them, but also reduced swelling, water absorption and thermal conductivity.
Coming all the way from Australia, Peter Vinden, professor at the University of Melbourne, reported on his research into microwave-assisted drying of radiate pine veneer.
A similar paper on microwave technology for improving uptake of preservative by peeler cores, from some of his students, won the poster session prize.
The speaker claimed his process was clean and energy-efficient and produced a superior dried veneer quality.
Significantly, the microwaves are directed at the surface of the veneer rather than its core. The process was found to speed up the rate of drying, reduce within- and between-veneer moisture content variability, to moisture-level any wet pockets, eliminate drying defects and to improve quality attributes.
Returning to the theme of thermal modification, this time of birch plywood, Vladimir Biziks of the Latvian institute of Wood Chemistry, took to the podium.
His work was carried out in cooperation with Latvian plywood manufacturer Latvijas Finieris and the aim was to improve the durability properties of birch plywood.
He found that increasing thermal modification temperatures led to decreased mechanical strength, but that in the 140- 180ºC range, resistance to decay increased.
Mathias Lugoye from the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, reported on the possibility of using bamboo mats made of woven slivers as three-ply boards for interior applications and concluded that such panels were in fact viable as an alternative to wood based panels.
‘Enhancing the environmental and mechanical properties of LVL [laminated veneer lumber]’ was the topic of Rémy Marchal of LABOMAP, France.
The objective was to use thicker veneers, and therefore less glue, without adversely affecting the mechanical properties of the LVL due to veneer lathe checking.
The preliminary results were promising, reported Mr Marchal, though further work is required and is under way.
Session 4 turned delegates’ attention to ‘Lightweight panels’ and began with a presentation by Maxim Peretolchin of chemicals giant BASF, Germany, on the company’s Kaurit Light polymer.
The polymer was foamed and added to the core layer material of particleboard and was found to reduce the weight of the board by 30%, using conventional particleboard-making machinery.
‘Perceptions of Austrian furniture customers of lightweight materials’ was the title of a paper by Asta Eder of Wood K Plus. This project is ongoing to the end of 2009, but initial conclusions were that lightweight panels had high potential for substitution in kitchen worktops, but only medium potential in carcases for kitchen and office furniture; and low potential in office desk tops.
The next speaker was Max Britzke of Dresden University of Technology, Germany. His paper was on ‘The continuous production of sandwich panels with paper honeycomb core for furniture applications’.
Mr Britzke pointed out that such sandwich panels are not new, but are often produced non- or quasi-continuously and with framing in them and with typically 3mm particleboard or fibreboard faces.
His project investigated using thinner faces, such as 0.7mm continuous pressure laminate (CPL), which is supplied on rolls and which, with ‘endless’ strips of honeycomb core, can be used in a fully continuous process.
While the project produced good panels economically, additional work is to be carried out on appropriate adhesives – and applicators for them.
Session 5, ‘Machinery, process control and machining’ began with another keynote speech, this time from Jussi Silventoinen of INDUFOR OY, Finland.
His paper was entitled ‘Wood products benchmarking – a tool for better performance’.
“Benchmarking is the process of comparing the cost, cycle time, productivity or quality of a specific process or method to another that is widely considered to be an industry best or relevant practice,” said Mr Silventoinen. “only by knowing where you are now can you tell where you need to go.”
A good benchmarking study must be designed for a specific purpose or area of the business and you must decide the parameters in advance, advised the speaker, saying that “the final aim is profitability”.
‘High energy and maintenance savings by improving tribology in continuous MDF/OSB and particleboard presses’ was presented by Achin Offermann of Idemitsu Lube Europe, Düsseldorf, Germany.
Idemitsu is a producer of specialized lubricants for the chains and rollers of continuous presses and Mr Offermann claimed significant energy, oil and maintenance savings on presses using his company’s lubricants.
Jorge Martins from the University of Porto, Portugal, spoke about the “Effects of formaldehyde scavengers on the machining of particleboard’, testing boards made using several different scavengers, and concluded that they have a much lower influence on energy consumption than do the machining conditions. However, all scavengers tested did lead to a significant reduction in edge quality of the boards. He also concluded that the scavenger with the best performance is urea – and that fine urea has a much better performance than coarse urea.
The next presentation was something completely different as Robert Massen of Baumer Inspection, Konstanz, Germany, described the use of ‘Automatic physical and aesthetic repair of wood panels’.
Mr Massen pointed out that physical and aesthetic defects require different sensors. Hence the development of the ColourBrain multi-sensorial scanner. Combining this scanner with advanced robotics for fully-automatic patching has led to a system capable of invisibly ‘repairing’ wood, stone or other materials.
Jörg Hasener of German company GreCon described the company’s new generation of inline control systems for wood based panel production lines, measuring moisture content, weight per unit area, mat temperature, board density and density profile, thickness and weight of the panel. He also described the Dieffensor system to detect foreign material in the mat before the press.
That brought us to the end of day two of the symposium.
Session 6 was on ‘Wood based panels – recycling and novel feedstocks’.
The final conference of COST Action E49: ‘Processes and performance of wood based panels’ took place immediately before IPPS, in Nantes, and Dr Mark Irle, research director of Ecole Supérieure du Bois, Nantes, and chairman of the COST Action, reported  on progress since the Action started in 2005.
Dr Irle said the challenges facing the industry were: strong competition; raw material supplies, especially wood; and regulation and legislation.
He identified the challenges facing research as: The ‘low-tech’ image of wood; increasing competition for funds among themselves and other sectors; and the credibility gap between science and the industry.
COST Action E49 was intended to bring the European research community together and coordinate national efforts and intensify the interactions between research and industry. Its website, www.COSTE49.org, enables industry members to search for projects and vote for them, thus changing priorities accordingly. The Action organised conferences
and workshops, short-term scientific missions and training schools.
A last-minute insertion of a paper then occurred, with Amine Bouslati of Ecole Supérieure du Bois stepping up to the rostrum at short notice to deliver, very competently, ‘A preliminary investigation of the variation of heavy metal contents in recovered wood’.
He classified recovered wood in France and reported the contaminants were copper, chrome, zinc, cobalt, boron and cadmium and that 80% of recovered wood in France was contaminated to some degree.
This was an ongoing project with the objective of getting a protocol adopted, said Mr Bouslati.
Continuing the recycled wood theme, Marcin Klimczewski of Warsaw University, Poland, looked at the properties of fibreboard pulps manufactured from selected types of recovered wood.
Two types of recovered wood were studied: pallets and packing; and fibreboard from furniture elements.
The first type was found to have shorter fibre lengths and thus was best suited to lower density boards such as insulation board, while the second type can be successfully utilised in both high density (HDF) and insulation boards.
A familiar speaker at many such conferences is Professor Edmone Roffael (retired) of the University of Göttingen, Germany.
His paper was entitled ‘Recycling of UF-bonded fibreboards’ in which he investigated whether conditions used in conventional pulping and defibration were adequate and optimal for recycled fibreboard manufacture, whether the pulps obtained were equivalent to fresh wood pulps, and how the properties of thermo-mechanical pulps obtained from recycled boards can be improved.
Professor Roffael concluded that recycled fibreboard can be used to partially substitute wood in MDF and suggested that an extruder used in place of a refiner for the recycled fibre was advantageous as there was less degradation of the resin than in a refiner and therefore less water pollution problems.
Following the coffee break, delegates settled down for the final session, number 7, simply entitled ‘Resins’.
Dr Stefanie Wielund of the Fachhochschule Salzburg, Austria, opened with ‘Formaldehyde-free dimethoxyethanal (DME)-derived resins for wood based panels. Catchy title.
Her work revealed that such a resin is possible and environmentally-friendly and had the major advantages of being colourless, of low toxicity, easily handled and with a long shelf-life.
However, and I quote: “To fulfil the requirements of the wood industry the reactivity of the adhesive needs to be enhanced!”.
The final presentation of IPPS 2009 was entitled ‘Evaluation of adhesive cure by ABES and IPATES for two UF resins’. It was given by João Ferra from the University of Porto.
Before you ask, ABES stands for Automated Bonding Evaluation System and IPATES for Integrated Pressing and Testing System.
Mr Ferra explained that formaldehyde release issues have led to a decrease in the molar ratio of formaldehyde to urea in UF resins, causing lengthened hardening times and weakened mechanical properties of particleboard. “It is necessary to optimise the synthesis of UF resins, studying how the production process can be adjusted to obtain the desired performance,” said the speaker.
He prepared resins by two methods: (1) the alkaline-acid process; (2) the strongly acid process. He then tested the bonds produced and found that the IPATES test always gave a better performance for resin (1), while the ABES test suggested the differences between (1) and (2) were slight.
Dr Rob Elias brought the 2009 edition of IPPS to a close, summing up two-and-a-half days of information and networking, and indicating that IPPS 2010 will return to its roots in North Wales, UK, to celebrate an important anniversary.
As delegates took lunch together on the Friday of the conference, most expressed satisfaction with the programme and its wide-ranging content, which continued the traditions of EPPS since its inception in 1997.

Because of its “sound positioning, solid commercial business and excellent German engineering”, Siempelkamp says it is panic-proof. “Even under the most unfavourable conditions, we will make it well through the next years and will keep the 2,745 jobs worldwide secure, of which approximately 1,600 are based at the head office in Krefeld,” said Dr-Ing Hans W Fechner, spokesman for the management.
Siempelkamp says the ability of the 125-year-old company to stay crisis-proof is the result of a stable and diverse makeup on three strong business pillars. These are: machinery and plants; the foundry; and the nuclear technology business units.
Siempelkamp says it offers products that are world market leaders – and that a high proportion of inhouse production, together with the 100% ownership of international branches and production facilities, strengthen its position.
Another formula for success claimed by the company is that it knows how to make use of opportunities that arise and strengthens its portfolio with well-directed acquisitions, such as SES.
Siempelkamp Energy Systems GmbH (SES), the specialist for energy plants, emerged from the takeover of Metso Panelboard GmbH in Hanover, Germany and has belonged to the Group since 2007. Over 20 years of market experience and more than 50 operating energy system concepts ranging from 10 to 85MW combustion capacity comprise the references for SES.
It is a company which specialises in complete engineering know-how and technologies for the supply of stable process heat, concentrated particularly in the wood based products industry. Together with process heat supply, this Siempelkamp subsidiary also offers the possibility of electrical power generation up to 10MW, either as a combined system with a steam turbine, or an ORC module in the thermal oil circuit, or as a standalone combined heat and power generation system.
Since its integration into the Siempelkamp Group, the Hanover-based company has been able to lay the foundation for further projects. For instance at the Pfleiderer AG thin MDF plant in Grajewo, Poland, a power station with a total combustion capacity of 66MW passed its acceptance test in 2008.
The facility was built within the scope of a turnkey contract and is designed for 7MW of thermal oil capacity, 27 tons of steam/hour at 276psi and a flue gas capacity of 28.5MW for the dryer.
At the Laminex MDF plant in Australia an existing energy system was replaced by a new SES power station with a total combustion capacity of 24MW. Two additional orders in eastern Europe are further success stories, says the company.
Art Progress ordered a power station for the first MDF plant in the Ukraine with a total combustion capacity of 68MW. Another new MDF plant has been built in Apsheronsk, South Russia. Next to the panel production equipment made by Siempelkamp, SES will supply the energy plant with a total combustion capacity of 76MW.
Egger in St Johann (Austria) ordered an energy supply concept from SES for the new Büttner dryer used on a particleboard press line. Thermal oil capacity of 16MW, plus 20MW of flue gas capacity for the dryer, produce a total combustion capacity of 36MW. The thermal oil system will heat the press and is also designed to feed the district heat supply of the city of St Johann.
Büttner’s specialist industrial dryer technology and SES complement one another within the Siempelkamp Group.
“The engineers of our companies cooperate intensively when working on comprehensive projects – from the development of the plant concepts to the acceptance by the customer. This is a clear benefit for the plant operator: Roadblocks can be avoided and quick start-ups guaranteed,” says Ines Veckenstedt, managing director of SES.

This year marks 25 years since Hans-Joachim (Hajo) Binder sold his first complete secondhand particleboard line to a company called National Particleboard in Pakistan.That line, like Mr Binder’s company Modul Systeme, is still very much in operation.
Modul also owns two-thirds of a company called Springer M-R-S. Located in Springe, alongside Modul’s warehouse full of second-hand and refurbished machinery, SMRS designs and manufactures brand new gluing systems and board transfer stations for calender lines as well as custom-designed forming stations. It also carries out refurbishment and reconditioning of a wide range of machines for itself and for Modul Systeme.
In November 2008, SMRS resumed the activities of a company once commonly seen in panel mills – DeMets NV – which manufactured presses, pre-presses and cement bonded particleboard cold presses. SMRS acquired the rights to the DeMets name and alldrawings and specifications. New DeMets presses are now available from SMRS and it also offers service and spare parts for all existing DeMets equipment.
“Our clients are often used to, and more comfortable with, proven technologies,” said Mr Binder, ceo of Modul Systeme. “They don’t like ‘black boxes’ where they are not in control of the process and can’t see what is going on. So, we developed a high-tech gluing system with freely programmable controls. It is a modular system with the modules built into frames which can simply be lifted into place, connected together and they are working within two days.”
Sales manager Margret Michl described the concept in contemporary terms as “plug and play”.
“If you are buying a Siempelkamp or Dieffenbacher complete big continuous production line and their engineers come and install everything for you and get it working, that’s OK,” continued Mr Binder. “But with a more-basic line upgrade or modification, our approach is preferred and we can offer upgrades to all particleboard and MDF lines, as well as offering complete lines.” Modul also has a history in plywood lines.
The majority of Modul’s business is in developing countries where less technological
‘sophistication’ is often preferred and where the skill-set in the factory may be lower than in western European countries, for example.
“We allow our clients to choose what they want, based on their own experience, rather than presenting them with just one option,” said the chief executive.
The glue preparation/mixing systems offered by Modul are basically common to both MDF and particleboard mills although the application of the glues is obviously different.
For the particleboard industry, the company has developed flake dosing bins with  integrated belt scales and it also supplies the blenders, with exchangeable liners (‘wear troughs’) if required.
Some glue system projects are supplied via OEM’s such as Dieffenbacher. As an example, the Unopan MDF line supplied by Dieffenbacher was equipped with glue dosing for its 1,400m3/day capacity from Modul Systeme, as a sub-contractor.
The latest direct supply of a glue dosing system for MDF went to Uniboard USA LLC for another 1400m3/day line.
“In our business we have to follow the client’s wishes – whatever he wants we will find.  We offer advice but if the customer is set on one particular thing, that is fine,” said Ms Michl.
Recent projects for Modul Systeme include the first-ever particleboard plant for Ethiopia.  This was a second-hand Bison/Dieffenbacher line from Molar Wood in Thailand, plus a  short-cycle press from Shanghai Wood Based Panel Machinery Co Ltd (SWPM).
The Dieffenbacher press was a singleopening unit of 2440x14640mm with a capacity of 260m3/day; Maichew Particleboard Project produced its first board in March 2009.
In 2001, Modul supplied a Siempelkamp ContiRoll press, relocated from the US, to Kwangwon Lumber in South Korea to make MDF. In 2008, it supplied a second line, also from the US (Georgia Pacific) and this was another ContiRoll, with a capacity of 290m3 /day. First board was produced in August 2009.
Urupanel SA of Uruguay built that country’s first MDF line when Modul supplied another ContiRoll line, this time relocated from Daesung’s MDF factory in South Korea and with a capacity of 230m3/day. It produced its first board in April 2009.
A single-opening particleboard line was also supplied to Tableros Peruanos SA, relocated from Utisa in Spain. This 220m3/day Dieffenbacher press line produced its first board in October 2009. The line has ClassiFormer forming (originally from Metso).
In contrast to many companies in the panel industry, Modul has had quite a reasonable 2009 in terms of orders.
Repinho of Brazil purchased a shortcycle line, which is already in operation. It also ordered a particleboard line and dismantling started in August in the former factory of Merbok in Kedah, Malaysia. It is scheduled to restart in its new location during 2010.
A secondhand 4ft-wide Mende-type calender line from Venezuela, which started life producing particleboard, is being combined with a refiner from Pfleiderer’s plant in Nidda, Germany and will take shape, combined with other machinery, to make up a complete line for a Modul customer in the Far East, where it will then produce MDF.
The latest project for Modul at the time of my visit to its Laufen offices in early October was to dismantle Glunz’s first MDF line, Topan 1, in Germany, and transport it to Iran where it will be re-assembled. This includes a 350m3 a day ContiRoll press and everything else from chip washer to finished board.
“We started to feel the downturn in 2008 and business has been quite quiet this year,” said Mr Binder. “Our project times are shorter than the major suppliers so we felt the effects earlier than some others in 2008. Now we feel, again earlier than some others that the market is beginning to come back. I hope we are ‘through the valley’ and beginning to come up again, whereas the big OEMs are still stuck in that valley.
“It is not always between us and [Siempelkamp or Dieffenbacher] but there is now a trend towards one of them getting the order for the continuous press for example and our getting the order for the front end and/or the finishing line.”

Balancing between spiralling costs, availability of high quality raw material and global efforts to preserve natural resources requires the panel industry to change its viewpoints, says Markku Levanen, head of sales at Dieffenbacher in Finland. “In fact, we are talking about changing the ideologies.
“There can be few mill and production managers who have not considered making use of the raw material that is increasingly available and comes with a tolerable price tag – and that is recycled wood material.”
The French particleboard producer Compagnie Francaise du Panneau (CFP), part of the Parisot Group, decided to take advantage of the ClassiCleaner wood raw material cleaning system from Dieffenbacher in its plant, which produces 500,000m3 of panels a year, mainly for the furniture industry.
Prior to investing in this screening and cleaning system, the plant was able to use only a small proportion of low quality chips in its process. The ClassiCleaner is CFP’s response to raw material prices and availability.
“The ClassiCleaner has allowed CFP to significantly increase the proportion of low quality chips that it uses because heavy contaminants such as stones and glass, and light impurities, are now efficiently separated from the raw material, the end-product quality is better and the lifetime of the flaking equipment is longer,” said Mr Levanen. “Light impurities such as plastic foils and thin papers do not affect the panel quality any more either.”
Philippe Valdenaire, technical director of Parisot Group, said: “We chose the ClassiCleaner because of its compact size, screening accuracy, ability to separate light and heavy impurities and its low operating costs. An additional benefit has been the tidy surroundings.
“Since the installation in June [2009], we have been able to increase the use of low quality raw material. The efficient chip cleaning enables us to further increase the use of recycled raw material without compromising the board quality. In addition, we are impressed by the very low wood loss in the cleaning process”.
The ClassiCleaner provides for a screening result according to the overall process needs and the cleaning is carried out only to the enriched sub-flows. This innovative operating principle makes the patent-protected ClassiCleaner both efficient and economical, claims
Dieffenbacher.
The particleboard industry is not the only one struggling with the availability and quality of wood raw material; the pellet industry is seeking the same material sources as the panel producers. Quite logically, what suits the raw material preparation needs of the particleboard manufacturing process also suits the needs of pellet manufacture. Due to this evident synergy, the Dieffenbacher Group now serves the pellet industry as well as the panel industry.
“Chip cleaning is becoming increasingly important also in the wood pellet industry,” said Mr Levanen. “Wear of dies and other process equipment correlates closely to the sand and silica content of chips and flakes, no matter if we are talking about panel or pellet manufacture. The norms of silica content in wood pellets require producers either to closely monitor the mineral quantity of raw material – or to take measures to remove it,” he explained.
In pellet manufacture, screening the chips and flakes into different fractions can bring similar savings in energy consumption to those experienced in panel manufacture and Dieffenbacher says its ClassiCleaner fits well in both processes.

The Ligna 2009 exhibition in Hannover in May 2009 marked a watershed for the company known to everybody simply as ‘Vits’.
It was on May 20, during the show, that Vits Systems GmbH became Vits Technology GmbH, marking a change of ownership of this long-established company – and at the same time, a return to former ownership.
Werner Deuring, an Austrian entrepreneur with a history in the panel machinery industry, first bought the company in 2002. He sold his shares to an investment company in 2006 but remained as managing director.
On March 26, 2009, Vits Systems GmbH went into controlled receivership after battling with liquidity issues in recession-hit markets and a lack of willingness on the part of the banks and investors to inject further funds into the company.
Clearly Mr Deuring still had strong faith in Vits and on May 20, 2009 he reacquired 100% of the shares in the business and renamed it Vits Technology GmbH.
Nothing else has changed substantially. The company still designs and manufactures impregnation lines for decorative papers in the panel industry and supplies converting lines in many other industries, such as automotive filter paper, masking tape and glass-fibre non-wovens.
Resin mixing and blending systems supplier IFA, Vits America and Vits Imaco (the Chinese arm of Vits technology GmbH) were unaffected by the insolvency of Vits Systems.
“The management team is essentially the same as before,” confirmed sales and marketing director Daniel James. “We have had to reduce overall staff numbers across the business due to a large decrease in orders for paper impregnation lines between Summer 2008 and Ligna 2009 and because our other business units, metal treatment and offset printing, have heavily under-performed.”
In fact, in August 2009, Vits divested its metal treatment division, which provided coating for steel and aluminium strip to be used in white goods manufacture (such as washing machines) and in making car bodies, among other things.
“We are now concentrating on our core businesses of paper impregnation – and converting lines (as well as dryers and format sheeters) for the printing industry,” said Mr James. “However, in spite of the staff cuts, all key technical personnel in design, R&D and service have been kept on.”
Working with Mr James are sales managers Jörg Mellin, Mariusz Maciejewski and Peter Hauer.
“Customer contact with sales and after-sales service thus remains the same and the engineers that go out to customers are the same ones that have visited them for 15 years or more – the faces have not changed,” said Mr James. “And this is very important as many of our sales represent repeat business.”
The new company took two orders at the 2009 Ligna exhibition. One was being commissioned in Iran in late September, while the second was still in progress. A sizeable order was received from China in September and another, larger, order came in from Turkey. However, Mr James said, when interviewed in early October at the Langenfeld headquarters, that these orders could only be seen as “spikes”, there being no clear trend in the global market this year, even though more enquiries were being received at the time than at the same time last year.
Vits latest development, the super-fast HighLine, initially previewed at Ligna 2007, has recently been installed and commissioned at an MDF factory in Turkey and received official customer acceptance in early October 2009. The line is capable of running at over 100m/minute, sheeting melamine films for flooring.
The problem in the past has been to achieve such speeds without rewinding at the end of the impregnation line – highspeed handling of sheets of impregnated paper was the difficult part of the operation.
“Due to a new suction cup linear-driven stacking system, developed with the customer, the line has now broken the 100m/min barrier and during the acceptance test actually ran at 105m/minute for a complete eight-hour shift. Nobody has achieved that kind of performance before,” said Mr James proudly.
“Using this new system, and other modifications, we can double the speed of many installed melamine lines, if required. Thus a mill could replace six existing lines with three by simply upgrading them, or it could invest in a new HighLine.”
Phenolic lines are of course capable of running at much higher speeds than melamine ones and Vits had just finished commissioning such a line at a panel mill in Austria. This can run at over 200m/minute, sheeting and stacking directly on to pallets.
Phenolic lines from Vits which rewind onto rolls, instead of sheeting on pallets, already run at speeds of up to 300m/minute, according to Mr James.
Of course research and development (R&D) wait for no man, even in quiet markets, and Vits is working on new systems for intermediate coating between somewhat in the last couple of months and things were now looking quite good. “China seems to be the driving force as far as investment goes at present,” he said.
Meanwhile, resin mixing systems manufacturer IFA in Rain am Lech in Bavaria has experienced slow business in the impregnation field where it is heavily dependent on Vits. However, in other areas, such as building products, diversification over the last couple of years seems to have paid off. The company was recently awarded two large contracts to deliver mixing systems to the gypsum board market.
Vits has had a turbulent time this year but emerged from Ligna with orders and a new owner convinced of its long-term viability – and with the nerve to weather the current storm and to build on a solid reputation in the company’s specialist fields of operation.

Much of the expertise and experience gained by Bison still exists within Binos and the company is still owned by the same branch of the Greten family – Tom Greten is the managing director.
The Binos company specialises in building and upgrading plants for the production of MDF/HDF, particleboard, OSB/OPB (oriented particleboard) and cement and gypsum bonded particleboard. Technology, engineering, automation and manufacturing, as well as installation, commissioning and training of personnel are all part of the service, says Binos.
However, there is more to the company than that, explained Tom Greten when we met at his headquarters in late September.
“We are promoting ourselves as a solution provider – ‘come to us with your production problems and we will create solutions for them’,” he said.
“The first point, though, is often to get the panel manufacturer to admit that he has a problem – then we can help. Maybe they have ignored the problem for some time and don’t want to admit it, or, while they were selling all the panels they could produce they didn’t have time to fix the problems. It is a matter of communication from both sides.”
Mr Greten feels that the current market is actually playing in his company’s favour. With sales volumes severely down for the panel makers, there is more incentive to address costs and efficiencies in areas such as energy conservation, raw material consumption and maintenance costs.
“Once the customer’s problem is identified, we can produce tailor-made solutions and these can involve our machines or a mix of ours and other manufacturers’ machinery,” continued Mr Greten. “This does not necessarily involve a high level of investment as we point out ways to gain improvements economically.
“We also offer a service element and advice. For instance, a blower fan in an air forming head may be blowing much harder than is necessary. Summer and winter [ambient] air have different humidities and we can adjust the dryer air flow accordingly, thus saving energy.
“This could be part of a complete service package, offering a general analysis of the whole factory process.”
A major part of Binos’ business is in the MDF sector and forming is an area of particular attention for the company, having as it does such an influence on final panel quality – and cost.
One instance of Binos combining its own technology with that of other suppliers is in its use of the Dieffensor machine made by GreCon of Alfeld, which is also owned by another branch of the Greten family (Gerd and Ernst Greten).
Originally launched as a detector for foreign bodies in MDF mats to protect the stainless steel belts of a continuous press, Dieffensor now has a much more wide-ranging roll in controlling the forming line, when combined with Binos’ lifting elements. The result is what Binos calls Active Density Control.
The Dieffensor provides an accurate measure of the mat weight and density distribution and feeds this information electronically to the Binos lifting elements under the forming belt. These elements lift and lower the mat and, in conjunction with the scalper, control the complete mass flow of the mat, with two effects: First the control and optimisation of the cross-profile; and second, a more precise and constant production of the length profile. “This system is much more accurate than belt scales,” said Mr Greten.
The objective is more even forming, a better end-product, and a saving in valuable wood fibre.
There are three main business areas for Binos in manufactured machinery: MDF/HDF; mineral bonded boards; and particleboard (including OPB). A fourth business area is in refurbishment and spare parts (related to the Bison history of the company).
For MDF, the company is focused on thin boards, employing the Mende-type (calender) roller press in which the company has considerable experience. It modifies older presses with new rollers of different size, or new frames, and produces output capacities of 50,000 to 120,000m3 of MDF per year.
For fibreboard forming, Binos offers its spike roll sifters and formers. “The sifter and former are key pieces of machinery for producing MDF of less than one millimetre thickness,” said Mr Greten. “The homogeneity of fine fibres in this former is far greater than in conventional mechanical forming heads as the spike roll disintegrates the fibre balls into single fibres before forming the mat. It also incorporates a vacuum steam injection system which gives increased production. The sifter has adjustable air and spike roll speed and also sifts out latex lumps, for example.”
Binos is currently supplying a modified version of its spike roll former to a company called Borisov Drev in Belarus, together with a calender press with a 3.2m drum, and a guarantee that the line will produce 2mm thick board, with the inbuilt potential to produce 1mm thickness.
This is a turnkey project for Binos, which is supplying all the equipment for the line, including spike roll sifter and forming, pre-press, press and blowline blending.
“This project demonstrates that we are a serious supplier to the wood based panels market and this is our biggest project to date,” said the managing director. “We are a strong supplier in MDF lines where product quality is more important than pure capacity. This kind of plant will be well-suited to the world, post-economic crisis.”
Binos claims to be the only supplier of complete plants for mineral bonded boards (gypsum and cement) with capacities of up to 50,000m3/year. It also modifies older lines, particularly in Russia/eastern Europe.
“Our projects range from €850,000 to €4million for modifications and we are currently commissioning a Bison gypsum line in Russia that was originally supplied in 1992 but not installed until now for financial reasons,” said Mr Greten.
In particleboard, Binos offers a way to improve profitability for those companies with older production lines which are no longer competitive in that market.
It does this by offering upgrades to the lines to produce an OSB product called oriented particleboard (OPB) – a product with smaller and thinner flakes than traditional OSB. The mills can then compete with OSB in certain markets for an investment of €2 to 4 million, claims Binos.
“The owners can choose to dismantle and try to sell their old particleboard plant or give it a new life and a better-priced product using the same press and just a new front-end to the line,” said Mr Greten.
Glue kitchens and resin blending equipment are part of the scope of supply for both MDF and particleboard lines. It is the engineering workshop at Springe that enables Binos to carry out repairs, refurbishment and upgrades to a range of older machinery, being equipped with large lathes capable of machining large rollers, for example.
“We have a history of prototyping and this stands us in good stead to analyse situations and provide solutions for our customers,” said the managing director.
This also means Binos has an extensive research and development (R&D) facility with a lot of paid-for R&D activities under way, for companies both within and without the panel making industry. This includes areas such as visualisation, programming and plant control systems.
There are three departments within Binos GmbH: Binos Technology, Binos Machinery and Binos Automation, whose titles speak for themselves.
Tom Greten freely admits that his company is not trying to compete with the big oem suppliers such as Siempelkamp and Dieffenbacher; it does not supply high-capacity lines as they do. Rather, Binos is in the market of smaller capacity lines producing niche products where quality is more important to the mill than quantity, he says.
With this fact in mind, Mr Greten and his team see the current economic difficulties facing the global panel industry as an opportunity for Binos rather than a threat.

2008 will long be remembered as the year when the global economic downturn, occasioned by the collapse of the US and European housing markets, encountered the global financial crisis. In many ways the two events were linked through the sale of toxic assets comprising dubious housing loans among the world’s banking community.

Carl Benscheidt founded his business in Alfeld near Hannover in northern Germany making shoe lasts (the wooden ‘moulds’ used to make shoes) and in 1911, commissioned a young unknown architect called Walter Gropius to build him a factory.
Walter Gropius, who went on to become world famous for his ‘Bauhaus’ school of architecture and design, produced factory and office buildings at Alfeld which still look modern today and which are the subject of an application to UNESCO to be listed as a world heritage site.
The shoe last company was known as Fagus (the Latin name for the beech wood out of which the lasts were made). It continues to design shoes and to make shoe lasts today, although plastic has replaced wood and the scale of production is much smaller due to world market trends.
Part of the buildings now house a museum on both their architecture and shoes, which is open to the public.
In 1974, Ernst Greten, great-grandson of Carl Benscheidt, decided on an additional, completely different, business path and founded GreCon as a manufacturer of measurement and safety equipment, mainly for the woodworking industries.
GreCon’s fame in the wood based panel industry today is as a global supplier of inline measurement devices, spark detection and extinguishing equipment, steel belt protection sensors, cyclone blockage detectors, panel surface inspection devices and laboratory testing equipment.
It is also in a joint venture with woodworking machinery maker Weinig in GreCon-Weinig which makes finger jointing lines in a newer building on the Alfeld factory site.
This year saw the complete updating of the whole line of measuring equipment supplied by GreCon and this range, designated 5000 and replacing the 3000 series, was first presented at Ligna in Hannover in May 2009.
This updating/upgrading process involved the complete redesign of some equipment, such as the DAX 5000 laboratory density profile analyser – which received software and hardware upgrades and a new cabinet design – while for others there was just a software upgrade or improvements in calibration.
“We introduced the 5000 series because we had developed a lot of new systems of benefit to our customers. We have had eight orders since Ligna for the DAX 5000 alone,” explained Kai Greten, joint managing director of GreCon.
Obviously, as with any electronic/ computer systems, upgrading of software is a continuous process and has been ongoing since the 3000 series was announced in the 1990s, said Mr Greten. “However, we decided that we had got to the point where we could make big enough changes to justify the launch of a new generation – the 5000.”
Products in the 5000 range include the UPU 5000, which detects and maps blisters and delamination in panels on the line after the press, using non-contact ultrasonic systems.
The UPU 4000 is also offered as a less sophisticated, and therefore lower-priced, alternative.
The DML 5000 is a thickness gauge with laser heads or transducers for use with softer materials, while the DMR 5000 inline thickness gauge is intended for use on panel production lines. It is available with the CT frame to enable it to be withdrawn sideways from the line for calibration or maintenance without interrupting production.
For moisture content measurement inline, GreCon offers the IR 5000 non-contact infra-red sensor for mats before the press and the MWF 5000 for the pressed panel product.   This latter device employs microwave technology and records surface and core moisture content of the panel. Both systems can be used in all process steps of panel production, says GreCon.
Supplementing the inline technology is the MWF 5000 LM laboratory microwave moisture measurement system.
For board weight measurement inline, there is the brand new HPS 5000 with high resolution, measuring each square millimetre of board. “This calculation of weight is based on detecting 100% of the processed wood,” said Mr Greten.
The CS 5000 is aimed at high-speed lines and can have up to10 non-contact heads across the width of the running line. The GS 5000, meanwhile, is a more conventional board scale to measure individual panels or stacks of panels, employing load cells placed under the conveyor.
For surface inspection of panels inline, there is Superscan for laminated panels and this is installed directly after the laminating press.
Just as important as measuring finished board quality is controlling mat quality before it even enters the press.
The Dieffensor was launched at Ligna 2003 as a system to detect foreign bodies or glue lumps in the mat before a continuous press in order to protect the valuable stainless steel belts from damage.
However, developments on this device since its launch have extended its applications considerably, as Mr Greten explained.
“The add-on function of the Dieffensor is weight measurement of 100% of the raw material going towards the press. This is a key feature because it gives measurement in both length and width directions and allows optimization of forming and saving of resinated wood raw material.”
Development of this machine has been carried out jointly with machinery maker Dieffenbacher, which started with the idea of press belt protection.
“Over 30 Dieffensors have now been delivered and development is continuously ongoing,” said Uwe Kahmann, joint managing director with Kai Greten. “We have six people dedicated to the development of this product in our research and development department and have achieved an accuracy of 5g/m2 recently. We are also diversifying into other markets with the Dieffensor, thus further justifying expenditure on its development.”
Research and development (R&D) is an important department for GreCon and employs a total of 20 staff for measurement applications.
In the currently quieter market, the R&D department has used the opportunity to carry out ‘internal research’ on new products, while the company as a whole has taken the opportunity to improve some of its internal systems and procedures.
Another important area of business for the company is in spark detection and GreCon has developed its software version 1.7 this year.
“Large mills have may be 150 detection zones around their factory and they wanted a system to better coordinate those zones – and to cater for add-ons after start-up,” explained Mr Kahmann. The latest generation came to the market in July 2009.
The Alfeld works assembles 8,000 spark sensors a year and these can record incidents to one thousandth of a second for later analysis by control units which come in three ‘sizes’, from four-zone to 16-zone to 150-zone units.
Press fire protection is an increasingly important area too and GreCon has carried out 12 installations since it launched its programme 30 months ago. “Our sensors are more accurate than those of our competitors and can, for instance, distinguish between a spark and a camera flash,” said Mr Greten.
That is good news for a journalist/ photographer who lives in fear of setting off an extinguishing system while gathering a story for these pages!
Recognising that panel mills, like everybody, are having to economise as much as possible, GreCon also offers a consulting service to assist its customers, as well as making its products available on lease or rental programmes to reduce customers’ capital outlay.
“Perhaps the customer likes our equipment but he wants to know the saving potential in his particular factory,” said Mr Greten. “So we will go to the plant, analyse his process, and present a report showing the savings potential we have identified; a fresh look from someone outside the business can often be helpful. We can also provide specialist knowledge to evaluate the databases of our installed equipment and sometimes we can help the production people to make a case to the financial management to get buying decisions made. We call this whole process ‘potential analysis’.”
While the company is headquartered in Germany and all R&D and production is carried out there, it is represented around the world by its own offices.
The latest to open was in Moscow earlier this year (2009). The long estestablished office is Grecon Inc in Tigard, Oregon in the US, which has been going for 20 years.
There is also GreCon Ltd in Newcastle, UK; GreCon China in Shanghai; and sales offices in France, Thailand and southern Germany. Independent representing companies are also to be found in 35 other countries.
Although shoe last manufacture only accounts for around 15% of the group’s business today, GreCon certainly has not lost its roots. Indeed it has proudly maintained and preserved its historic architectural heritage while pushing at technological boundaries with its products for the panel industry.

Reopening of Ainsworth’s closed specialty plywood mill in Savona, British Columbia, uncertain
Ainsworth Lumber’s specialty plywood mill in Savona, British Columbia, which closed in early June, is less certain to open in the near term than was hoped, according to the company.

Russian-American company Midway United Ltd has decreased the annual capacity rating for its Eniseiskiy plywood mill, according to Lesprom.

Under European standards plywood traders must specify if their products contain a palm core, according to Timber Trade Federation head of technical and trade policy Nick Boulton.

ATC Pembroke Inc hopes soon to reopen its Laurentian Valley, Ontario, MDF mill, closed since November 2008, reports The Daily Observer of Pembroke, Ontario.

Austrian wood-based panels manufacturer Egger is reported to be considering the construction of an OSB mill in Borisov, near Minsk, in Belarus.

Bassett Furniture Industries Inc is closing its MDF facility in Bassett, Virginia, which has been operational since 1970. This will affect about 45 employees.

Ainsworth Lumber Co Ltd has appointed Chris Davies chief financial officer. Mr Davies succeeds Robert Allen who has left the company.

The Canadian government is providing C$1.2m in repayable loans to Quebec company Perfecta Forêt Inc for the acquisition and installation of equipment needed to start up wood processing operations in two former lumber mills in Saint-François-de-Sales.

The first commercial Oriented Split Straw Board (OSSB) plant opened in China recently, under licence to Dutch-based Panel Board Holding (PBH) Ltd and with help from panel technology developed by the Alberta Research Council (ARC), reports The Edmonton Journal.

Fletcher Building Ltd expects Formica sales to rise once the laminates unit has completed its global restructuring, and as the global economy returns to growth, according to Formica chief executive Mark Adamson.

The biennial world-class event, The 13th International Exhibition on Woodworking Machinery and Furniture Manufacturing Equipment (WMF2010) and The 13th International Exhibition on Furniture Accessories, Materials and Wood Products (FAM2010) will be held March 10-13, 2010 at the China International Exhibition Centre (CIEC in Beijing, China.

India’s Greenply Industries, which manufactures plywoods, laminates, decorative veneers, particleboards and MDF, plans to establish 25 design studios over the next 12 months to sell laminates and decorative veneers, reports the Financial Chronicle.

Mississippi plywood supplier Pavco Industries Inc is closing because of a poor housing market and competition from China.

Boise Cascade is indefinitely curtailing most production at its plywood and veneer manufacturing facility in Oakdale, Louisiana, affecting 130 workers, reports The Associated Press.

Binos GmbH, international manufacturer of complete production lines for wood and mineral-bonded board industries, took an order in 2008 from the MDF manufacturer OAO Borisovdrev in Borisov, Balarus, for a new thin MDF production line.

Due to the planned streamlining and realignment of the entire organisational structure of Pfleiderer AG, Dr Robert Hopperdietzel recently made the decision to step down from his position as an executive board member.

The Shenzhen Convention & Exhibition Centre will play host to its second ZOW supplier fair for the furniture industry and interior design, March 19-22, 2010. www.phmeyer.de

The recent general assembly of Eumabois welcomed the Ukrainian association Uwma and its president Vasyl Masyuk. Representatives of the Ukrainian woodworking technology industry will sit at the European federation table for two years after which Uwma will become a member of Eumabois.

Following resignations of board members Grazia Finocchiaro (Scm Group) and Gianni Raggi (Cefla) the managing board of Acimall – the Italian woodworking machinery and tools manufacturers’ association – has been joined by Giancarlo Anselmi (Balducci Bruno) and Roberto de Joannon (Incomac).

Hans-Joachim Bender has been awarded the Enterprise medal of the federal state for his corporate and professional achievements. Mr Bender has been managing director of Robert Burke GmbH since 1993.

Pfleiderer has acquired the LEED platinum seal for sustainable building currently said to be the most widely used building certification system.
LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) sets the highest standards for wood materials used.

Thermopal has received the M Technology Award 2009 at the ZOW furniture supply fair in Verona for flameprotect compact, its non-combustible decorative panel.

An ICC committee for acceptance into the 2012 International Building Code (IBC) and the International Residential Code (IRC) has approved a new American National Standard for engineered wood panel siding.

GET is a new Italian company active in the wood based panel field and represents worldwide various machine manufacturers including OMAR, EMG, GLOBUS, CMP, and TRASMEC.

UPM plans significant restructuring to ensure the competitiveness of its plywood and timber operations in Finland.

South America’s leading wood panels producer Masisa SA reported a financial loss for the first nine months of 2009 due to falling demand resulting from the global economic crisis.

Colombia is to get its first MDF production line with the decision of local panel producer Tablemac SA to invest around US$30m to build a new fibreboard plant.

Grupo Ferrum, the parent company of old established Argentine MDF producer Tableros Guillermina, has won effective control of Fiplasto SA, the national plywood and RTA flat-pack furniture manufacturer.

Grant Forest Products Inc, which has been under court bankruptcy protection in Canada since June, could be on the verge of having a new owner, with local sources and media linking its name with that of Georgia-Pacific LLC (GP), Forestweb reports.

North American structural panel production increased 9.6% in the third quarter to 6.702 billion ft2, up from 6.114 billion ft2 in Q2 and the highest since Q3 last year (8.050 billion ft2), according to the latest quarterly statistics from APA-The Engineered Wood Association.

Columbia Forest Products executives have lobbied provincial government officials for confirmed availability of affordable raw materials and training dollars for the company's struggling Hearst hardwood plywood facility.

UK Timber Trade Federation (TTF) will be showcasing the environmental benefits of timber as part of its presence at Ecobuild 2010, Earls Court, London, March 2-4, 2010. The association is also sponsoring the Timber Works section of the exhibition.

The 2010 biennial Wood Tech Show will be held March 9-11, 2010 at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Oregon. Over 175 manufacturers will showcase virtually every product in the primary wood processing industry. wwwwoodwideweb.com

The ninth edition of ZOW Italy which was held in Verona from October 21-24, attracted 9,352 trade visitors (corresponding to approximately 12,000 entries), including 2,783 foreign visitors from 81 different countries.

A record Installation and start-up time of only 4.5 months was achieved by the Weihua and Dieffenbacher erection and commissioning teams when the first MDF board was produced on September 18, 2009 at the new Weihua Fengkai site in Guangdoing Province PR, China.

The American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) has applauded passage in the US Senate of Legislation to improve efforts to fight catastrophic wildfire by creating a dedicated fund within the Forest Service to pay for fire suppression activities and prevent other valuable land management programmes from being raided in heavy fire years.

The 2010 Panel & Engineered Lumber International Conference & Expo (PELICE) will be held February 4-6 at the Omni Hotel at CNN Center in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. www.pelice-expo.com

'Choose the original – choose success' is part of a Eumabois promotional campaign which aims to defend the federation’s members consisting of European manufacturers of woodworking technology.

Well over two thirds of the stand area for ZOW 2010 in Germany have been sold.

With the completion of a biofiltration system in an effort to meet federal emission standards, Humboldt Flakeboard Inc has been rewarded with its work with a $531,508 rebate from Pacific Gas & Electric Co.

“Choose the original – choose success” is part of a Eumabois promotional campaign which aims to defend the federation’s members consisting of European manufacturers of woodworking technology.

Exports of wood chips from Australia have declined 28% in 2009 but the country is still the largest chip exporter in the world, reports the Wood Resource Quarterly.

The 44th International Wood Composites Symposium sponsored by the Composite Materials and Engineering Center (CMEC) and Washington State University Extension will be held at the Red Lion Hotel on Fifth Avenue in Seattle, Washington from March 29-31, 2010.

The Ecole Supérieure du Bois (ESB) in Nantes, France, is launching a post-master degree entitled “Bioresource composites: innovation and ecodesign’ in 2010.

Contractors working on the restoration of one of Istanbul’s most important mosques completely enclosed the building with a protective scaffold clad with Norbord’s Sterling OSB.

Nelson Pine Industries’ biggest wood processor celebrated its 25 anniversary last October. On October 2, 1984, a joint venture agreement was signed between the original partners, Newmans Group Ltd, Nelson. C A Odlins Ltd Wellington, and Sumitomo Forestry Co Ltd, Tokyo, Japan.

A war of words has broken out between leading Italian woodworking technology exhibition Xylexpo and newer rival Technodomus.

Participants in an ‘International Conference on Carbon Storage in Wood Products’ held in Brussels recently, unanimously agreed that Harvested Wood Products (HWP) act as carbon stores and that this needs to be recognised in future international agreements on climate change.

What is said to be the biggest MDF plant in North America has just gone into production.

Pfleiderer subsidiary Uniboard is investing more than US$2m in a new short-cycle melamine press at its Canadian plant in Val-d’Or.