Giben International, founded in 1947 in Pianoro as Gino Benuzzi, says that a revolution in the function of its machines was introduced in 2000, when it won the Challenger’s Award for technological innovation for its PM System at that year’s IWF exhibition in Atlanta in the US.
In Giben panel saws, the ‘PM System’ (PM stands for ‘pinze mobili’ in Italian and moving grippers in English) is the system which automatically positions each individual gripper along the length and cross axis of the machine pusher.
The position is controlled by the saw computer, ‘Giben G-Drive Control’, and is always optimised depending on the size of the boards, the cut sequence, the size of the strips or the size of the parts. The PM System is now an established feature of most of Giben’s machines.
This year the company introduced a brand new model, the Y-3000 SPT/MR panel saw in its ‘Professional line’ series, with automatic loading of boards from the lift table and a pusher with moving grippers along the ‘X’ and ‘Y’ axes. It also features Giben’s MR rotation system.
Giben claims this represents the simplest and most effective solution to carry out both first and second rotation of the in-fed stack of boards. Overall dimensions of the machine remain unchanged, since rotation is carried out in the space between the machine working table and the front air flotation tables.
The machines in this series offer high performance saw carriage speed (170m/min) and pusher return speed (90m/min) and also feature pneumatic saw blade release, a split and independent pressure beam and an automatic side-aligning device with two independent rollers.
“The single cutting line model Y-3000, with manual or automatic loading from a lift table, is a high performance and versatile panel saw designed for the furniture industry,” said marketing manager Stefano Conti.
For big sawing jobs, Giben offers the Formula S model, an angular system with two cutting lines featuring the PM System on the cross-pusher which can be equipped with robotic unloading systems and is controlled by G-Drive Control. This can also be equipped with a panel rotation system for staggered and/or checkerboard head cuts.
Giben has always supplied the panel processing industry with big sizing plants with two or more cutting lines, such as the Matic 17/170 and Hypermatic 19/200 models, but it is the Tetramatic which tops off the product range. It is claimed to be the biggest saw in the world and can cut stacks of panels 220mm to 310mm high (upon request), offering “huge yields” according to Mr Conti.
“Every Tetramatic cutting centre has two saw carriages, one on the top and one on the bottom, each equipped with two blades, thus combining the cutting height with high speed,” he said. The key feature is that the two main saw blades, of 470mm diameter and 4.4mm thickness, share the cutting strain equally on a stack of boards 220mm high as if it was a stack of 110mm.
Because of these features the cutting strain is reduced and a higher feed speed than would be possible using blades of 700/800mm is achieved, he explained.
The other two blades are scoring saws: the traditional bottom scoring saw prepares the cut on the bottom side of the stack and the top scoring saw avoids any chipping on the top of the stack.
“The Tetramatic has been designed to meet different tasks such as high capacity, extreme flexibility according to cut-to-size components, lower cost for tools and higher cutting speed,” Mr Conti said. “Tetramatic can be integrated into highcapacity cutting lines for largedimension panel processing industries, in full loading and unloading lines and robotized stacking and strapping lines which can be equipped with an anthropomorphic robot, with an automation level never achieved by any sizing system.”
Under assembly in the factory at the time of my visit was a Sigmatic angular system with 6000 x 2700mm cutting length, complete with an ‘SR’ stack rotation system for the execution of one or more head cuts with the length panel saw.
This sizing system was on its way to a customer who makes hardboard, suggesting that the rotation system is capable of handling thin wavy panels as well as rigid ones.
Of course none of the automation of the PM System moving grippers, optimised saw movements, panel rotation and automatic robotised unloading would work without a coordinating system: the G-Drive machine control software. This was developed by Giben to run on Microsoft Windows multitasking operating system and to control all the complex machine movements.
The machine layout and cutting pattern being processed are displayed to scale on the screen and the cutting operations and panel movements are simulated in real time.
A further software system available to Giben’s customers is the Optisave (Optiwin) optimisation software, which it says provides the best cutting patterns, taking into account the waste factor, cost of the saw, cutting time and the cost of the material.
Although Giben is a regular attendee at major exhibitions, the company also has a large, permanent showroom at the Pianoro factory, where machines from its product range are always operating. It also held an open day in November last year and in 2002.
“This complements our attendance at the shows, in fact every year this showroom hosts many customers who can touch with their own hands the Giben solutions and newest products,” said Mr Conti. 

The printing of realistic designs imitating natural materials such as wood and stone has improved in leaps and bounds in recent years until it is difficult for even the experienced eye to tell paper from real wood or granite.
What held back the development of these decors was not the look of the design, but its feel. It might at first have looked like a genuine piece of ash veneer, but as soon as you touched it, or looked at it from an oblique angle, the deception became more apparent.
Sesa saw the limitations of the printing process a long time ago and realised that a decor must have a tactile reality as well as a visual one.
Marco Santori, chief executive, first showed the world an embossed-in-register tile effect surface back in 1982, but the market was not ready for it. “At that time, the market was geared only for huge quantities,” explained sales manager Paolo Rastelli. “It was not until 1998 that we produced the first limestone embossed-in-register tile effect, in cooperation with Uniboard of Canada.”
The panel was displayed at the Surfaces show in Las Vegas in 1999 to great acclaim. Since then, embossed-in-register (EIR) wood-grains and tile effects have gained in popularity in the laminate flooring sector and, frankly, made the older style decors look their age.
The texturing of surfaces, showing features such as the pores of a wood grain, is not so new, but EIR takes this to another level altogether. The secret is to emboss the grain in a totally natural way so that the vessels, pores and grain of a wood appear exactly where they would in the natural product; it feels real.
This process requires a close cooperation between the paper maker, decor printer, impregnator, press plate maker and the press maker – in fact everyone involved in the whole process.
The printer marks the edge of the décor paper with register marks to ensure that it is correctly aligned in the press – so that the texture matches the printed grain or stone features. The paper maker’s and the impregnator’s role is to ensure that the paper’s behaviour with regard to shrinkage and expansion remains predictable.
That first EIR flooring was a tile-effect and here it was important that the grout lines between the tiles lined up.
In addition to all that, the press plate is textured in such a way that the level of gloss is not uniform. Areas of differing matt, satin or gloss finish complete the realistic effect.
It is easy to see why the successful development of EIR took a long time to achieve.
However, it has now achieved considerable market penetration in the laminate flooring sector. “We did not want to wait another 15 years for the next logical development,” said Mr Rastelli and that was to move on to the application of EIR in furniture production.
“We decided to show the end product in the market and to go straight to the end-user and show them what can be done.”
Two years ago, Sesa held a ‘private’ showing of its latest ideas in a restaurant in Milan during the Sasmil exhibition. This year, the company decided to hold a similar event in the Grand Hotel Fiera Milano adjacent to the Sasmil fairground and to invite potential customers to see the new range.
“This finish uses the technology to move on from standard melamine finishes – it is not in competition with them. This is a product to substitute for real wood, at lower cost.
“Production costs of this furniture are the same as standard melamine products, but, because they compete with real wood products, they give an opportunity for increased margins [for the furniture producer]. There is a need to find something attractive and to provide margins for manufacturers between cheap furniture from China and so on and the  expensive real wood.”
On show at the Grand Hotel were items of furniture made using the new EIR wood-grain decors. To make the point that these new decors can be used in the same way as existing ones, Sesa displayed samples of existing designs of cabinet furniture, produced in collaboration with four partner companies in the value chain.
The cabinets were made by Jose Saez of Barcelona, a famous Spanish furniture producer; the printed decor paper was supplied by Lamigraf; the furniture was designed by JordiVIDALasociados; and edging was by ServiCanto.
“We are giving new birth to this market – it is time for new concepts and our partners agree with this philosophy,” said Mr Rastelli.
The main launch of the new range took place at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile, held in Milan in April.
In addition to the items of furniture, panel samples of various designs were also displayed, showing the effect of differing levels of matt, satin and gloss finishes.
These samples included decor papers by well-known printers Bausch, Schattdecor and Süddekor.
Sesa is an international company, active in markets other than Europe, and sensitive to their different requirements.
“The North American market has different tastes from Europe and, following the success of our event during Sasmil, we plan to hold a similar presentation, geared to the North American market, during the IWF exhibition in Atlanta in August,” said Mr Rastelli.
Once again, Sesa has demonstrated the importance of pushing design forward in the decor market and not standing still or being content to compete at one level.
Having seen EIR become established in one market – flooring – it has moved on to test the furniture market with realistic woodgrains which compete with other surfaces at a new level.

The company which started out to supply machinery to the particleboard manufacturing industry 26 years ago is still very much at the forefront of wood preparation equipment in that industry.
Pal has specialised in recent years in the preparation of recycled wood and is well-qualified to do so, coming from the country that uses the most recycled wood in Europe.
However, a major new product launched by the company last year took it into the OSB industry seriously for the first time.
The Quadradyn screen was a development of the Dynascreen roll screen which Pal has produced for some years for the particleboard and MDF industries, but took this technology to a new level.
The company claims that the accurate screening of the Quadradyn promotes maximum use of resources, good classification of strands and reduces resin consumption, as well as providing a consistently available screen area which does not become clogged. It was intended to substitute for the large rotary drum screens normally used in the OSB industry.
The first two Quadradyn systems were sold to Huber for its massive OSB mill in Broken Bow Oklahoma in the US, and these are reported to be running successfully since the mill started up earlier this year.
That has been followed by a contract to supply the screens to the latest huge OSB mill to be built by Slocan/Louisiana-Pacific as a joint venture in British Columbia.
Fabio Chiara, sales and customer relations manager for Pal, says that the company has also received a number of enquiries for Quadradyn from European companies as well as North America.
Meanwhile, back in Europe, and particleboard, Pal is currently involved in all the new lines being built in Spain, says Mr Chiara.
For the Starwood particleboard line in Turkey, it has supplied roll screens and sifters for the green end and screens and a sifter for the dry area. This equipment was being delivered in June for anticipated startup of the mill later this year.
“For the future, I see positive signs, especially in North America in OSB but I see the biggest increase in particleboard activity being in China,” says Mr Chiara. “Particleboard is cheaper and more suitable for some applications in furniture and it offers the possibility to easily use recycled wood. This is at a time when the authorities are reportedly concerned about the removal of too much plantation poplar from flood prevention areas and a possible shortage of rice, due to government encouragement to farmers to plant trees. We have several enquiries from China right now.”
Mr Chiara reported that Pal had sold several urban waste lines to Japan earlier this year and has received orders for upgrading plants in Indonesia and Thailand. Notable in Thailand is the former STA particleboard line now owned by M P Particleboard. Asia Panel has also ordered a new screening line.
In Australia, Pal is now delivering roll screens for the green end and dry screening and sifting to CHH for its Mount Gambier Lakeside and White Avenue lines.

The company which started out to supply machinery to the particleboard manufacturing industry 26 years ago is still very much at the forefront of wood preparation equipment in that industry.
Pal has specialised in recent years in the preparation of recycled wood and is well-qualified to do so, coming from the country that uses the most recycled wood in Europe.
However, a major new product launched by the company last year took it into the OSB industry seriously for the first time.
The Quadradyn screen was a development of the Dynascreen roll screen which Pal has produced for some years for the particleboard and MDF industries, but took this technology to a new level.
The company claims that the accurate screening of the Quadradyn promotes maximum use of resources, good classification of strands and reduces resin consumption, as well as providing a consistently available screen area which does not become clogged. It was intended to substitute for the large rotary drum screens normally used in the OSB industry.
The first two Quadradyn systems were sold to Huber for its massive OSB mill in Broken Bow Oklahoma in the US, and these are reported to be running successfully since the mill started up earlier this year.
That has been followed by a contract to supply the screens to the latest huge OSB mill to be built by Slocan/Louisiana-Pacific as a joint venture in British Columbia.
Fabio Chiara, sales and customer relations manager for Pal, says that the company has also received a number of enquiries for Quadradyn from European companies as well as North America.
Meanwhile, back in Europe, and particleboard, Pal is currently involved in all the new lines being built in Spain, says Mr Chiara.
For the Starwood particleboard line in Turkey, it has supplied roll screens and sifters for the green end and screens and a sifter for the dry area. This equipment was being delivered in June for anticipated startup of the mill later this year.
“For the future, I see positive signs, especially in North America in OSB but I see the biggest increase in particleboard activity being in China,” says Mr Chiara. “Particleboard is cheaper and more suitable for some applications in furniture and it offers the possibility to easily use recycled wood. This is at a time when the authorities are reportedly concerned about the removal of too much plantation poplar from flood prevention areas and a possible shortage of rice, due to government encouragement to farmers to plant trees. We have several enquiries from China right now.”
Mr Chiara reported that Pal had sold several urban waste lines to Japan earlier this year and has received orders for upgrading plants in Indonesia and Thailand. Notable in Thailand is the former STA particleboard line now owned by M P Particleboard. Asia Panel has also ordered a new screening line.
In Australia, Pal is now delivering roll screens for the green end and dry screening and sifting to CHH for its Mount Gambier Lakeside and White Avenue lines.

In what is currently a very quiet market for new panel production facilities, Instalmec of San Giorgio di Nogaro in Udine, has its eye on new products which will help to strengthen its position as a supplier of systems for cleaning and drying the raw material for the production of MDF and particleboard.
Instalmec has been present on the Italian panel market since its formation in 1978.
That experience is important in that Italy is one of the major users of recycled, or urban, wood in the production of panel products, due to its lack of trees. It has enabled Instalmec to reach a position where it currently exports around 70% of its production all over the world, utilising this expertise.
“Most of our clients are using recycled wood and the contamination in this raw material is a major problem in the management of these mills,” said Adriano Stocco, managing director and founder of the company. “Many of the conventional systems on the market at the moment have some problems and consume a lot of energy,” he added. “The problem for the panel makers using recycled material is the quality of the final product as well as the wear and tear on their production line – and we must not forget the danger of fire; the quality of cleaning of this material is very important.
“Our aim is to produce reliable machines which reach a constant, high production quality in the final product – the panel.”
His company has patented three new machines in the past year aimed at achieving this end. One of these is a new, pneumatic, screen at the outlet of the dryer, which can also be used in the wet area of the mill.
“Traditional screens oscillate and they can get blocked after a few hours, leading to reduced effectiveness and the larger particles staying on the screen. Then it has to be cleaned,” he explained. “Our screen is selfcleaning by a counter-flow mechanism and, due to its shape, it gives better separation of the different fractions, taking out all the very fine fraction, which can contain silica, metal, plastic and so on, which would otherwise end up in the surface of the panel.”
He claims that this produces a whiter, smoother panel, as well as increasing production on the press line by 10 to 20%, according to several customers who have bought this system.
The pneumatic screen is also claimed to eliminate problems of spontaneous combustion in silos, partly because it allows for de-gassing of the particles, but also because the dryer and screen operate in a vacuum rather than a pressure system.
The second of the new patents is for part of Instalmec’s new layout for the production of raw material from the woodyard to forming, for both MDF and particleboard.
This is a new cleaning system in the wet area with a gravimetric separator – the subject of  the patent – for larger contaminants such as glass, rocks, metal, silica and rubber. The system is claimed to have low energy consumption and to reduce wear and tear in other parts of the production line.
The third new patent is a complete, integrated, low-temperature system for the drying of sawdust in the preparation of fuel pellets. These used to be produced from fresh wood, but rising demand for the product has led to recycled wood being increasingly used in its production, said Mr Stocco.
“The particular problem with these pellets is that the moisture content has to be just right to ensure that the sawdust sticks together to form the pellets. It needs to be in the range of eight to 12%,” he said. He believes this dryer will interest panel makers who have excess waste from their production lines.
In collaboration with Geoenergy, Instalmec is also developing a new generation of wet electrostatic precipitators, or WESPs, which Mr Stocco said will have many improvements on the existing units.
Another new product, which he said is unique to Instalmec, is a new generation of vacuum dryers for particleboard, single- or triple-pass.
“We guarantee five years of no wear and tear for the complete dryer system – the combustion chamber, dryer and cyclone battery,” he said.
Instalmec has also developed a new combustion system to burn sawdust from the screens and waste dust from the WESP. “The combustion chamber has been studied and re-designed,” said Mr Stocco.
“As before, it has fully automatic ash extraction, which means no downtime for cleaning. But now we have introduced new technologies for the pneumatic system, including the vacuum system in the dryer.”
Operating the dryer in a vacuum rather than pressure situation means it avoids wear and tear to the fan. The company has also re-dimensioned the drum’s internal parts to improve the drying process, by improving the mix of air and particles and reducing wear and tear there also. “In this way we guarantee even drying throughout the material in the dryer, whether it is large or small particles,” said Mr Stocco.
“The experience of Instalmec, and our R&D, are very important,” he said, stating that Instalmec spends around €500,000 a year on R&D.

Antonio di Nunzio has long experience in the most sophisticated formaldehyde and resin production processes. The company, which he founded in 1977, has been responsible for the construction of complete factories around the world and in most cases starts with a blank sheet of paper.
His company, Mapco Engineering, is headquartered in an office block in the centre of Milan from which there is no sign of any kind of industrialisation at all.
That is not surprising when you understand that Mapco does not itself manufacture anything, but sub-contracts all manufacturing to carefully selected companies on the basis of very detailed specifications according to the strictest codes and norms.
What the company does do is to undertake turnkey contracts starting from that blank sheet of paper and, using its experience, together with some very sophisticated CAD 3-D computer programs, design and supervise the construction of highly developed formaldehyde and resin plants.
Talking to Mr di Nunzio, it becomes clear that he attaches enormous importance to the norms and regulations with which a resin plant must comply if it is to operate safely and efficiently.
Every component part of a formaldehyde and resin plant is carefully tracked during construction and that can mean anything up to 3,500 items – or more – each having its own paper trail to ensure that the finished plant starts up, and keeps running, free of problems or accidents. That could mean 50,000 pages of documentation in total for a project.
Mr di Nunzio claims that no other company offers this kind of service. “It is very simple to produce formaldehyde,” he says.
“The problem begins when you want to produce it at low cost and high levels of quality and safety. Our background and our computer programs enable us to do just that.”
The regulations governing such plants have moved on a lot in recent years and he claims there are now a number of plants in operation around the world that do not meet the current environmental or safety norms.
“In western Europe and North America today it is not possible to construct a formaldehyde plant that does not meet these norms, but in some parts of the world there are no norms to meet,” laments Mr di Nunzio.
“However, there are still some older plants in Europe that are not up to standard and, even up to a year ago, there was one in western Europe still producing formaldehyde without treatment of the waste gases.”
In most cases, he says, it is not possible to upgrade these old plants because it is uneconomic – you need to rebuild the complete plant.
“The future for Mapco is bright because of our specialisation in formaldehyde and resin plants and the fact that we are able to meet all the standards at a lower cost than many of our competitors,” he says.
But Mr di Nunzio does not mean that he cuts costs by saving on materials: “You have to use good quality material, good quality construction, everything – and that’s where we come in. We cannot supply to any company that doesn’t want to meet the norms but, if it does want to meet them, we can offer cost-effective, quality equipment. Another advantage for us is that many of our competitors are big companies and are thus much slower to react than we are.
“Although Mapco Engineering sub-contracts its fabrication, we buy all the materials and we buy the man-hours of specialists, but we don’t pay the margins of middlemen,” adds the chief executive.
For the panel industry, Mapco finds an increasing tendency for mills to build their own resin plant on site, particularly outside western Europe, where there may well be a low concentration of panel mills and so the nearest resin plant may be a long way away. The company then designs and builds a resin plant to match the output of the panel mill.
“For instance we built a plant in Cameroon of only 10,000 tonnes per year,” says Mr di Nunzio. “That is very small but then their nearest resin supplier was in Europe!”
The largest and most fully automated plant built to date by Mapco was 150,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) of resin.
“We are relatively small but very specialised in what we do,” he says.
The company’s main market is in the continent of Europe, but it does have a representative in Beijing for the Chinese market and is considering exhibiting at fairs in that country.
The main material for the production of formaldehyde resins is, of course, methanol and this always seems to be an unstable market, but Mr di Nunzio sees a change on the way.
“The methanol market is very cyclical, with prices going up and down, but the average price has been increasing over the years.
“You need a very big plant to produce methanol economically, because it is a commodity market and today the plant capacities are up to two million tpa and the overall number of plants is reducing as individual plants get bigger.”
However, another product reliant on methanol is MTBE, which takes about 40% of the production and Mr di Nunzio predicts that, if consumption of MTBE goes down, the price of methanol will fall. “Currently, California is having some problems with pollution of ground water and it looks as if some plants there may close.”
In conclusion, Mr di Nunzio returns to his strong theme of the importance of meeting norms.
“If you respect the norms, you are sure that the life of the equipment meets the requirements and that maintenance costs will be low. For example if the pump lasts longer, the amortisation cost is low. This is just one benefit of constructing a plant ‘properly’,” he says.

The rapid progress in electronic equipment in panel mills in recent years has perhaps reduced the scope to invent totally new devices to some degree. However, it has not by any means meant there is nothing new.What it has meant is that what may appear to be relatively minor modifications to existing equipment are as necessary as ever to stay ahead in a competitive market.
With that in mind, Imal srl of San Domaso near Modena has introduced new developments to existing equipment, as well as having some new product launches.
Examples of products which have been further refined and developed are the company’s well-known thickness gauge, blow detector and spark detection systems, all of which are for use on the production line.
A completely new product launch comes with the Surface Defect Detector SDG. This is an X-ray based system which marketing director Stefano Benedetti, son of Imal’s president Paolo Benedetti, describes as “similar to an airport scanner in principle”.
The SDG will show up high density areas in a mat prior to its entry into the press. Possible causes of these areas include glue spots, fibre lumps and metal or other foreign bodies that could damage the stainless steel belt of a continuous press.
“This is a completely new product for us, launched this year and it is particularly important if you are producing thin board,” said Mr Benedetti. “So we position the sensors at intervals of 0.1mm across the mat. It can also show the density profile of a mat across the full width.”
Another machine employing the same principle is designed to protect wood size-reduction equipment. The DCE can be used in the infeed of crushers, chippers or flakers to avoid damage to the blades. It detects stone, metal or large lumps of wood.
“Today, panel mills are using more and more urban, or recycled, wood with an increased risk of damage and downtime,” said Mr Benedetti. “The DCE can help to avoid these problems.”
Another area in which Imal has concentrated some research is OSB blending.
“The existing system is very old and in need of improvement. It involves a rotating drum blender with spinning spray heads inside the drum. You can’t access the spray heads to monitor their efficiency during production and they become blocked over time, which means the mill needs scheduled downtime to clean the blender – in particular the spinning head system,” said the
marketing director.
“We have a strong background in blending, both for particleboard and, more recently, for MDF with our mechanical blending system, so in April this year we patented a new system for OSB.”
Imal’s new idea draws partly on the experience with the mechanical blending of MDF. There is a weigh-scale with a small surge bin behind it to even out the flow. The weigh-scale directly feeds the new blender, which does not have a revolving drum, but a fixed one, as used for particleboard and MDF; it is only the shaft inside that turns.
The blender is water-cooled to reduce maintenance (again a principle employed for particleboard) and resin is sprayed into the feed chute and at the blender entrance.
“The difference is that the spraying takes place outside the wood flow so it is easy to check and clean,” said Mr Benedetti.
The advantages he claims for the system are no downtime just for cleaning the blender, and that the blender is much smaller than a conventional one, which can be up to 15m long and requires a large steel structure.
“Now you can clean the blender when you stop the plant, rather than stopping the plant to clean the blender,” he said.
The first of the new systems is due to be installed in Europe in August.
Another new product is the UM800 on-the-line microwave moisture meter.
This device is designed to read the moisture content of particles, fibres or strands before or after the dryer and also measures the density and temperature of the material.
Two years ago, Imal launched its first mat damping unit for use prior to the press for the application of water and/or release agent. This TS100 unit obviously answered a need because the company has sold 35 of them worldwide, including six in China.
Imal also continues to supply a wide range of laboratory testing equipment, including its fully automatic, robotized Auto-Lab for testing the physical characteristics of panel samples. Here there is another product launched this year, in the form of the Roughness Optical Control
system ROC 100.
This is designed to select and grade samples of panels in relation to their surface roughness and to supply an analysis of the surface profile of the sample. The equipment is self-contained in its own cabinet and is particularly requested by manufacturers of MDF cabinet doors to detect roughness before painting or lamination.
The company has also spent some time developing its pallet block production line, utilising wood chips to make the blocks.
After extensive testing of a prototype in its own R&D department, Imal has supplied one line to Xilopan in Italy and sees a big potential market for this machine.
For some years, Imal has had a ‘second string to its bow’ in the refurbishment and supply of secondhand lines for panel production. The controls are always new and the lines are offered with performance guarantees.
Complete new plants of small capacity are something else the company has to offer and it has sold one such line to Iran for MDF production. It has a Siempelkamp multi-opening press line.
The capacities of the new lines supplied by Imal are typically in the 100m3 to 200m3 a day range.
Other markets for refurbishment and upgrading of plants are to be found in Russia and the former Soviet states. Imal received its first large orders from these markets in the past year.
It is not possible to stand still and survive in the machinery market today. Companies must always be refining existing equipment and developing new products and it is by a mixture of these approaches that Imal has survived the last 35 years.
The supply of complete lines, both refurbished and completely new, has added another dimension to the company and opened up some of the developing markets, where lower costs are mandatory.

Stunning. That is the only word to describe the location of Fantoni’s factory complex in Osoppo.
The company’s multiple panel production lines and its furniture factory nestle in the shadow of the southern Alps, which provide a spectacular backdrop under a clear blue sky.
As we reported on our last visit to Fantoni Spa, the sympathetic nature of the architecture of this industrial complex, and its landscaping, minimise its impact on this especially scenic area. This is a company which takes its environmental responsibilities seriously, as becomes clear during talks with commercial director Dr Paolo Fantoni.
His company has been involved in the generation of electricity in hydro-electric plants for some years, holding a 45% stake in Cons CURI, a consortium involved in this technology, and Fantoni operates eight such plants in the Friuli area, assisted by the region’s high annual rainfall.
Now Fantoni is becoming more and more involved in the development of biomass. In partnership with Vivai Alasia and the University of Udine department of agriculture, it is developing plantations of selectively bred (not genetically modified) poplar.
Growth rates of 12m in 24 months have been achieved and the trees are ‘coppiced’ (cut at the base of the trunk which then sprouts new growth) on a two-year cycle. This produces wood raw material suitable for particleboard manufacture.
Dr Fantoni explains that the fibre is not suitable for MDF production as it is too soft and not sufficiently homogeneous.
“The first 300ha of this poplar have been planted in the Trieste region with the cooperation of the government and local agriculture. This is in line with the EU policy of reducing food production and increasing non-food production,” explains Dr Fantoni.
His company directly owns 15ha of plantation adjacent to its factory, eight of which are planted with poplar, but he points out that the planting is mainly done in cooperation with farmers.
“This initiative looks promising, especially in view of the competition from energy producers for biomass, and I see it as a must to engage in such research,” says the commercial director.
Returning to the business for which Fantoni is better known in our industry, Dr Fantoni confirms that there are currently five panel production lines in operation at Osoppo.
All are designated Plaxil, because that was the name of the subsidiary company responsible for panel production which was absorbed into the main Fantoni group in 1990. Historically (and that means going back to 1896) the Fantoni name was associated with furniture production only.
There is a 38,000m3 a year Mende line producing thin particleboard, then a Pagnoni 13-daylight press line of 3.66m x 1.87m, producing 130,000m3 a year of MDF. Next comes another Pagnoni press line, with 16-daylights of 4.25m x 2.2m, producing 170,000m3 a year of MDF.
There are also two continuous press lines, the first a Küsters, 2.8m wide and 38m long, with a capacity of 300,000m3 a year of MDF, the second a Siempelkamp ContiRoll line of 2.4m x 39m, with a capacity of 360- 390,000m3 a year of particleboard.
The Küsters press produces Fantoni’s ‘light’ and ‘ultra-light’ panels.
Another subsidiary company is Novolegno in Avellino, further south in Italy, and this has another Pagnoni press line of four daylights, 11.2m x 2.2m, giving a capacity of 130,000m3 of MDF, glued with MDI binder, mainly for the Japanese market. It also has two calender press lines, one 2.2m wide and the other 2.4m wide. Combined capacity is 205,00m3 of thin MDF.
Fantoni also has a 95% stake in Lesonit DD in neighbouring Slovenia. This has a capacity of 90,000m3 a year on a 10-daylight Motala press, which is 5.6m long and 2.08m wide.
That gives the Fantoni group a total raw board capacity of 1.025 million m3 of MDF and 428,000m3 of particleboard.
“We have carried out major works to optimise the production of Plaxil 7 [the ContiRoll particleboard line] and increase its efficiency, as well as starting up two Siempelkamp melamine facing lines parallel to it,” says Dr Fantoni.
The ContiRoll line was bought secondhand, but unused, from Russia in 1999 and erected in Osoppo.
The Lesonit operation is an older line which Fantoni took over and which it is still in the process of restructuring.
“We have totally rebuilt the chipping line and carried out a lot of other work on the green end. We plan to build a second line there as soon as the market gives more significant signs of recovery and that could be either MDF or particleboard,” says the director. Fantoni has also installed a secondhand melamine facing line, from the former Medaspan Italian particleboard factory, at Lesonit.
Other operations under the control of the group include LaCon spa, Patt spa and Flooring SA.
LaCon carries out melamine facing of panels and production of thin CPL on a Hymmen continuous press and has two Vits impregnation lines for decor paper.
Patt Spa, in which Fantoni has a 24% share, produces laminate flooring and acoustic panels.
Flooring SA is 40% owned by the company and produces laminate flooring.
The Italian panel market has changed quite dramatically in recent years and this has been reflected in the manufacturing industry, according to Dr Fantoni.
“A lot of mills have ceased production in Italy in the last 18 months and this has led to an improved equilibrium, especially in the particleboard market,” he says.
He lists the closed mills as Medaspan, Novasep, Novameblo (just over the border in Slovenia), Stat, Panda, Trada and Sipav.
“This has taken a total of 1.5 million m3 off the particleboard market and offers an opportunity to get the price up from the terrible levels of 2003,” he says.
His story is somewhat different for the MDF market. “The success of MDF producers in recent years is largely due to laminate flooring – it equates to slightly less than 40% of European consumption – so almost four million m3 of total production goes to flooring.
“Italy has a market of 5.5 to 6.0 million m2 of laminate flooring, which means about 60,000m3 of MDF, compared with a national capacity of around 1.3 million m3. That represents four to five percent of output. Thus there is diversified development between north and south Europe and consequently a difference in strategy between the two regions in the last four years or so.”
Dr Fantoni sees another peculiarity developing in the market, with powder coating finding increasing acceptance.
“At the recent furniture supply exhibition, the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan, at least five large producers of furniture were introducing powder coated panels. Two major kitchen manufacturers – Febal and Aram World – both offered lacquered powder coated MDF doors, while Herman Miller, Frezza and Dazato all offered powder coated office furniture.
“We believe strongly that there has been great progress in this technology and that it will open up a strong flow of new products,” Dr Fantoni predicts. “Italy already has five lines owned by service companies ready to coat any components for the furniture industry and we offer a particular type of MDF which is conductive to encourage a more homogeneous spread of the lacquer.”
Called Metalwood, this panel was developed by Fantoni’s R&D department and, by the use of special salts in its manufacture, is 10 times more conductive than normal panels. It is also claimed that it has a high degree of workability which allows epoxy powder paint to be applied, even to milled surfaces, without the need for sanding.
“We think this will take over the market for white, grey and black in bathroom and kitchen furniture and TV stands. The cost is higher than for melamine facing, but the panels do not need to be edge-banded,” points out Dr Fantoni, who is an obvious enthusiast for this technology.
But this is not the only area in which this innovative company is seeking new markets for its MDF production. In the south of Italy, adjacent to its Novolegno factory, it is creating another new company to add to the Fantoni family, named Xilopack.
Fantoni’s R&D department has developed a new type of packaging for fruit boxes to be made and marketed by the new company. Made from thin MDF, the fruit box comes ‘flat-packed’ with ‘hinges’ on the chamfered edges so that it can be assembled by folding and clipping to make an opentopped box. In early June the company won a major prize from the packaging industry for this product and has a target of 20 million boxes a year. “We will also produce a half-size box as families are looking for a smaller box these days,” says Dr Fantoni.
“The law requires that all these boxes are recycled and so these will probably finish up back in panels as particleboard,” he adds.
Another unusual MDF-based product, developed by Swiss company Nueholz and now licensed to Fantoni, is TopaKustik. This specially machined MDF panel, first introduced at Interzum 2000, is gradually gaining acceptance in the construction market where noise reduction is a priority, such as in concert halls, and the company sees a good future for it.
As mentioned earlier, Fantoni began by producing furniture and its Osoppo factory still consumes 1,300m3 a month of particleboard and MDF in the manufacture of office furniture, although currently that market is still disappointing, says Dr Fantoni. “We are facing very tough competition, like the rest of Europe, although competition here is not as bad as it is in Germany where there is 40% less production than three years ago; Italy fell about 20% in the same period.
“We are aware that the office furniture sector multiplies the effects of a normal economic cycle. When GDP falls to zero, the furniture market goes into negative figures, but as soon as GDP improves, office furniture improves dramatically. So, we are waiting for better times.”
Dr Fantoni finds the current state of the MDF market less easy to explain: “I don’t really understand why this market did not rebound in September last year. It normally improves at that time of year, but it did not happen but I hope that, as particleboard has finally rebounded, MDF will follow.
“In the past, I thought equilibrium would be maintained by a growing market, but the loss of competitiveness in the European furniture industry on a world scale is changing the perspective. So I believe that explains why it has not improved and why there will not be an expansion in MDF capacity in western Europe.”
Dr Fantoni has always been a great supporter of the European Panel Federation (EPF) and its predecessor, the Euro-MDF Board (EMB), but feels that it needs to readdress its reporting strategy.
“Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic and other east European states are damaging the furniture industry – especially in Germany – and I think that, in future, the EPF must re-analyse the situation in east and west Europe and treat the two areas separately and not analyse Europe as a whole.”
After visiting the Osoppo factories, one comes to the inescapable conclusion that Fantoni is not just another panel producer.
Apart from the fact that it has maintained contact with its original roots as a manufacturer of quality furniture, it has also invested considerable resources in its R&D centre (doubled in size recently) and developed several very innovative products, as well as adding value to much of its production.
Now, with its involvement in plantation poplar, Fantoni has become fully vertically integrated and, quite possibly, unique in the west European panel industry.