I well remember the first ZOW exhibition I attended in 1997. Almost nobody among the exhibitors spoke English and the exhibitors' literature was only available in the German language. This was not surprising - it was conceived as a show for German manufacturers to sell decorative and interior furnishing products and ideas to German buyers from the furniture and interiors sector centred around Bad Salzuflen, one hour's drive from Hanover in the north of the country. In fact the name of the exhibition is an acronym for Zuliefermesse Ost-Westfalen, with Ost Westfalen being the furniture producing region in which Bad Salzuflen is located and Zuliefermesse meaning accessories fair. How things have changed. Now it is like the United Nations. Not only visitors, but also exhibitors, come from all over the world, including China. It started in less than one hall at the Bad Salzuflen Messe (fair ground) but this year occupied most of five halls, albeit that halls 22 and 23 are rather smaller than the others and triangular in shape due to constraints of the site. It was the first time that hall 23.1 had been used by ZOW. Many exhibitors consider this expansion to be both a good and a bad thing. While they receive an international range of qualified visitors to whom they can offer their products, some of the essential character of ZOW has been compromised. It is not like any other exhibition, having more of a workshop atmosphere, and is at its best as a modest-sized show. Logistics have also become a problem with the growth of the show, with access roads becoming clogged with traffic and parking close to the show being more difficult. Talking to the owner of ZOW, Peter H Meyer, at this year's event (held from February 25 to 28) it appears that expansion of the exhibition has come to an end due to constraints of space as well as his desire to preserve the character of this unique show. He has always set his face against moving ZOW to another exhibition centre, too. This is an annual show aimed at designers and specifiers and, once it became international, was seen as a strong competitor to Interzum, the interiors exhibition held in Cologne in odd-numbered years, just before the major Ligna woodworking show in May. However, many of the exhibitors that I spoke to in Bad Salzuflen this year - and those were of course the exhibitors closely related to the panel business - said that they will in future attend Interzum in odd years and ZOW in even years, thus getting the best of both worlds. Regular readers of this magazine will know that ZOW Bad Salzuflen began in 1995, with 2,000m2 of exhibition space. It has since spawned a number of other editions around the world: Today there are annual ZOW events in Pordenone, Italy (the first ZOW to be launched after Bad Salzuflen, in 2001); Madrid, Spain (2002); Moscow, Russia (2004); Shanghai, China (2005); and Istanbul, Turkey (2008). The first event in Shenzhen in China will be held in 2009. This city is located close to Hong Kong but on the Chinese mainland and will be additional to the established ZOW in Shanghai. "China is a continent, not just a country, and I think there is room for two ZOW shows," said Mr Meyer at the Bad Salzuflen press conference. The Shanghai show is to move from its location on the east side of Shanghai to a new one on the west side in 2008 and will run concurrently with the Shanghai International Furniture Exhibition, which debuted last year. ZOW has always excluded machinery manufacturers from its line-up of exhibitors, until 2007, but only selected companies are allowed to exhibit. "We have a particular type of machinery manufacturer here to make it clear what has become possible in terms of machining [and processing] furniture parts. It is interesting to contact different customer groups, without having noisy machinery running and we offer a different approach to customers for the machinery makers," said Mr Meyer. Thus Wemhöner Surface Technologies was to be found discussing its printing/lacquering lines, short-cycle presses, membrane and membrane-less presses and its lightweight (honeycomb-cored) panel pressing lines. "We exhibited here for the first time in 2007 and got a large order as a result," said Horst Oechler, area sales manager. Similarly, Bürkle Process Technologies was present to discuss its direct printing and lacquering lines and lightweight board production. "Two lacquer suppliers in Germany now have one of our lines in their showrooms and this has led to good business for us," said Bernd Jochims, area sales manager. "Digital printing is very versatile - you can print whatever you like, in small runs if necessary." Homag was another machinery exhibitor (though without machines of course). It was also promoting lightweight board production lines, together with edging and fastening systems for them; and its direct printing lines. Hueck Engraving has exhibited at Bad Salzuflen for some years but this year was the first time as Hueck Rheinische, having amalgamated with its sister company under the Berndorf banner. Thus the company was exhibiting Hueck's press plates and Rheinische's press compensation mats together for the first time. "New for 2008 is 'Glossline'," said Oliver Espe. "It offers a particularly strong matt/gloss effect in the same panel." Hueck also promoted its plates for woodgrains with gloss in the pores and matt on the higher surfaces. Sandvik Hindrichs-Auffermann also showed its press plate designs, for the third year at the show. It offered a new matt texture which gives a very smooth feel to the panel - 'Sparkling Stone' - a stone texture with glossy spots in it. Among panel makers exhibiting at the show was Belgian Spano Group. This comprises Spano particleboard at Oostrozeebeke, Spanolux MDF at Vielsalm and Dekaply melamine faced particleboard and MDF. Spanodecor is the name of its decor range. An innovation from Spano is its MDF Design, a 3-D surfaced MDF. Using press plates, the company offers a variety of 11 patterns and textures and can provide others to order. With all the talk about paper honeycomb-cored lightweight panels these days, it was interesting to see the core itself on the stand of Axxor, which supplies the honeycomb and the expanding machines to open it up for laying down in sandwich panel lay-ups. Egger of course gave centre-stage to its honeycomb-cored sandwich panel produced at its St Johann factory in Austria. "We are seeing a lot of good solutions coming together in fittings, processing, jointing, Innofix plastic strip edgebanding, adapters for sink and cooker hob fitting and so on," said Andrew Laidler of Egger (UK). Panels with as little as a 1.5mm radius edge were shown. New for 2008 is a range of 75 laminates, held in stock, cut to size for doors. Egger's stand also exhibited its wide range of textured decors in wood grains and stone, as well as smooth plain colours. Homapal of Germany launched its real wood veneer-surfaced laminate, offering 39 veneers from light ash to ebony, with a soft touch surface that maintains the real wood feel. The company has nearly 60 different cylinders to print woodgrains onto Homanit's HDF. Varioboard, also of Germany, showed its MDF/HDF panels, while sister company DTS Systemoberflächen exhibited a range of printed foils and decor papers finished with its electron beam-cured (EB) acrylic resins. "These are not melamine resins but acrylic and that makes our process unique," said plant and sales manager Ralf Michael Gerigk. "We have always been very strong in high gloss and there has been much increased demand for that in recent years. Our surface is also much more scratch-resistant than melamine." The company is investing e13m at DTS in a new hall, stocking system, coating line, office building and mixing of its resins. These resins can also be coloured to order by DTS, if you want a coloured ash for example. Elesgo is the brand name for DTS' EB-cured surfaces and it can offer the coating on decors from any printer worldwide of course. The surface is also suitable for outside use and on laboratory bench tops for example. Decospan from Belgium chose ZOW Bad Salzuflen to launch Shinnoki with a striking black theme to its stand (and the clothing of its personnel). Decospan has always specialised in veneered boards and Shinnoki is a range of 16 fully-finished, ready-to-use, lacquered 19mm MDF panels, with a melamine backing on the reverse face for stability. The ultra-matt polyurethane finish is said to enhance the natural look and preserve the veneer structure. The company uses the 'mixmatch' jointing technique where wood of different trees and various grain patterns is matched, giving continuous areas without any visible interruption. This gives a more uniform quality without losing the lively and unique aspect of wood, says Decospan, which emphasises that all its veneers are ethically sourced. It has recently invested in a 2.3m wide lacquering line from Bürkle, giving the company great flexibility in its new 70,000m2 factory. Decomat is a subsidiary of Decospan established in February 2007 in Croatia to splice veneer and supplies eight million m2 annually to the open market. Decospan also has a splicing factory in the Ukraine supplying its own needs. Panel manufacturer Unilin, also of Belgium, though owned by Mohawk of North America, launched its Unilin cabinet Concept at the show. It now offers knock-down kitchen cabinet kits, complete with fittings, for base and for wall units. The company, as Unilin Decor, continues to offer melamine faced panels in a wide range of decors, cut to shape/profile and drilled if required. A company headquartered in the UK and with a factory in China, BLP, displayed its range of cabinet doors, primarily for kitchen cabinets, in membrane pressed foil, real fleece-backed veneer and in five-piece shaker style. Moving on to the decor printers, we begin with Interprint, whose motto for 2008 is 'Go closer' to discover a new dimension in design, said Interprint's Elizabeth Zenker. Its stand was strikingly themed in black and silver with pull-out panels and large drawers displaying its decors in various harmonised colour matches. 'Iron Red' was a very striking marble effect in grey/black/red colours and a strong pattern. 'Cimbalo' fantasy had simple swirls which had to be touched to realise it was not 3-D. In addition to more traditional woodgrains in a variety of light and dark shades, grey/brown tones predominate in the 2008 range, as well as strong, darker grains with white in the pores. Alabama Walnut showed both heart and sapwood in a particularly striking woodgrain. In a room at the rear of the stand were many more decors including the one-week-old range in 'carbon fibre-look' as a 'high-tech' material. Süddekor received an award after the Interzum show last year. Not for its decors, though it certainly could have been, but for its printed brochure and the award came from the printing industry and was won in competition with automotive companies and other 'sexy' brochure specialists. Dirk Eiynck confirmed that black and white is a trend this year, leading to such woodgrains as limed darker woods in combination with other structures and colours. "The first two months of 2008 have been very positive for us," he said. Coveright was promoting its 'Silveright' anti-bacterial surface and Dean Musfelt said it had received a very good response from the healthcare industry. The company's DWS range is also available with anti-scratch, anti-static and slip-resistant surfaces in many different colours and designs. Schattdecor's stand was a real show-stopper. It was totally white. Or that is the way it appeared. Laid out as an apartment floor plan, it had a 'kitchen' with white cooker and units, 'living' with white furniture, 'play' with white toys, 'sleeping' and 'study' areas with white fitments and everywhere, triangular cross-section panels which rotated within the walls. These revealed the latest decor suggestions on two sides and - you probably guessed it - white on the third. "We have a new research centre in Thansau for finish foil and a laboratory lacquering line so our customers can see the finished effect," said Bernd Reuss. Schattdecor brought 30 new decors to ZOW in oaks, beeches, maples and fantasies, demonstrated by Monika Ruthe of Schattdecor's design department. There were two new stones for kitchen worktops including 'Nero Marquina', a black and white marble. Grey/brown tones were a feature in the woodgrains, as well as fantasies such as 'Letra Fantasy', which was light grey on dark grey. Strong grained woodgrains were a significant feature of the display. Among all the regular exhibitors at ZOW Bad Salzuflen, many of whom have been exhibiting since the first edition, there are now Chinese companies adding to the total of more than 700 exhibitors for 2008. Has this workshop lost something of its original appeal by getting so much bigger? Yes, it undoubtedly has. On the other hand, it has gained a reputation as probably the most comprehensive, focused and user-friendly show for the sector which it serves.

I attended a formaldehyde conference, the focus of which was on the many different test methods used to measure formaldehyde content and emissions, and I began thinking about the relative performance of plywood, particleboard and MDF.   The structure of plywood is very different to densified panels and this will affect its relative performance dependent on the test method; plywood does not normally have glue on its faces. Thus it will perform well in a test where the edges are sealed so the formaldehyde must escape through the faces. The gas analysis method is such a method; in fact the reference for plywood. The thickness and permeability of the outer veneers will control the formaldehyde emission rate.   Particleboard or MDF does have adhesive on its surface, mixed with the particles or fibres, but the surfaces tend to be densified by pressing and the higher density will lead to lower permeability and slower diffusion rates.   Panel structure will have slightly less influence in other tests where the edges are not sealed, like the Japanese desiccator and European flask methods. The perforator method is an extraction method where all the formaldehyde is supposed to be removed by boiling in toluene.   Although I know the typical adhesive content of densified and plywood panels, the methods of expressing the adhesive contents are different so a conversion is required.   The adhesive content of plywood is expressed as a glue-spread value used during manufacture (g/m?); for densified panel adhesive it is given as a percentage of dry wood content.   The glue-spread values for a plywood are dependent on the grade of panel, wood species and the veneer surface roughness.   A typical range of glue-spread values for a single glue line are 150-250g/m². To convert this to a percentage of dry wood we will have to make some assumptions about the solids-content of the glue and structure of the plywood. If the solids-content is 60% and the panel is 18mm five-ply, then the solid adhesive content as a percentage of dry wood is going to vary between about 4 and 5%, depending on the veneer density. A seven-ply version would have a range of approximately 5 to 7% because there are more glue lines.   This demonstrates that plywood generally has less adhesive as a percentage of wood weight than typical densified panels (8-14% depending on type and grade of panel), except OSB panels which have about 4%.  

Yildiz Entegre currently has three major areas of business: chemical, port facilities and forest products. It will also soon add shipbuilding to its activities on a site already acquired on the Marmara sea near Istanbul; then it can import chips for its panel lines in its own vessels. The chemical side of the business produces nitric and phosphoric acids, fertilisers and ammonia. It also has six plants producing urea formaldehyde. In the ports business, Yildiz Entegre owns and operates a port 30km from Kocaeli, the site of its panel business, in the direction of Istanbul. Yildiz Entegre (not to be confused with Yildiz Sunta, or Starwood, separate and unconnected panel making businesses belonging to the same wider family) decided to enter the panel making business in 2000 and produced its first MDF panels in mid-November 2002. In fact, prior to building that line, Yildiz Entegre partnered family panel businesses Starwood and Yildiz Sunta but then separated the businesses and itself focused on chemicals for some years. The press chosen, as so often in Turkey, was a Siempelkamp ContiRoll continuous unit which is 55.3m long and was the longest press in the world at the time. It is fed by a Pallmann 62in refiner. "This was a successful project for us and we reached a capacity of 1,000m³/day, in three-shift production, within three months of start-up," said director Hakki Yildiz proudly. In terms of value-added products, Yildiz Entegre has not just followed the normal routes of melamine facing or surface printing, but has concentrated on some less common niche products. In 2003, the company invested in a Homag of Germany line to produce MDF profiles for furniture components as well as items such as skirting and architrave. Capacity is 40 million pieces, 2.8m long. In 2004, the company decided to invest again and this time chose to buy a second MDF production line, identical to the first with Siempelkamp press and identical Pallmann refiner to line one, to produce panels up to 60mm thickness. This second line has the additional feature of a pre-heater, which Mr Yildiz said is the only one in production on an MDF line. With the two lines running, Yildiz Entegre was now reaching a total capacity of 2,000m³/day, although in reality, said Mr Yildiz, the company is doing better than that, averaging around 1,200m³/day from each line. "We made this investment because the market was growing and we also focused on value-adding again in 2004, investing in a Homag line to produce laminate flooring. The capacity of this line is six million m²/year," said the director. Again in 2004, the company invested in additional capacity for its MDF profiling line. "In 2005 we had our second MDF line capable of producing thick boards very effectively, so we decided to invest in a solid MDF door line and we produced our first finished door in January 2006. Capacity is now one million doors a year." Some of the door production is of flat panels, but, because the second line can produce MDF in 40mm thickness, the company also purchased a Homag CNC routing line to machine profiles into the faces of the doors and a Wemhöner membrane press line to apply special PVC foils to the door surfaces. Doors are also offered with cut-out, glazed, panels. "Also during this period, we invested in short-cycle presses and today we have four Wemhöner lines in operation producing melamine faced MDF," said Mr Yildiz. "All these value-adding processes take quite a lot of volume from our raw MDF production, but there is still a good market for raw board in Turkey and so we decided to invest in a third MDF line. We signed the contract in August 2006 and produced the first board in October 2007. It is identical to the other two lines in having a 55.3m ContiRoll, although only the second line has the pre-heater for producing those thick boards. The wood preparation equipment - chippers and refiner - were from Pallmann and replicated the equipment supplied for lines one and two. "This brought us to a total capacity of 3,500 to 3,600m³/day and we became the biggest-capacity producer of MDF, under one roof, in the world," said Mr Yildiz proudly. The incredible investment run at Yildiz Entegre didn't end there, however. "In 2007, we decided to invest in a doorskin project and signed the contract, again with Siempelkamp, for a line with a capacity of 11 million doorskins per year, equivalent to 400m3/day," said the director. As for all the other lines, Pallmann was chosen as the supplier of the refiner for the doorskin line and Yildiz Entegre purchased a 46in unit this time. "This was only Siempelkamp's second doorskin line, but the first was some years ago and so this was really their first and was to a completely new design - we trust Siempelkamp in this. "The line will be installed here at this site and we are also ordering a painting line so that we can coat the doorskins. At first we will just produce the skins, but ultimately we will produce the complete door here," said Mr Yildiz. The doorskin line was ordered in July last year and delivery was expected in March, with production in June this year - the foundations and building are already in place. That is still not the end of the investment story at Kocaeli. "Also in 2007, we decided to go into the manufacture of printed panels and ordered a continuous printing line from Hymmen of Germany, to produce furniture panels and flooring, with a 30 million m²/year capacity. Again in 2007, Yildiz Entegre invested in decor paper impregnation and now has two Vits lines under installation. "Entegre means integrated and so this completed our integration in MDF," said Mr Yildiz proudly. But a third line is to be ordered soon. The company will then offer its own exclusive decors, having previously bought them in from Starwood. A second flooring line will also be added, at double the existing line's capacity of six million m2, and giving a total of 18,000m2. That just left particleboard - a panel which Yildiz Entegre did not produce - and so the company ordered another ContiRoll line in June 2007. "This was intended to go into production in August this year, but in the meantime we decided to find a new location closer to the wood supply and to reduce the strain on logistics at the Kocaeli site with such a large total capacity. We have selected a site for the 2,000m³/day particleboard line more to the south of Turkey and we will go into production in 2009," said Mr Yildiz. Currently, wood supply is 40-50% from the local market, depending on the season; 20-25% logs from Ukraine and Russia; and around 30% as chips from Brazil and the US. "We will increase our imported chip volume and other [panel] producers should do the same," said the director. "Ukraine and Russia will find it impossible to go on increasing their volumes and they may in fact decrease. Domestic supplies will also not increase. "Of course, although our particleboard mill will be closer to the raw material, it will be further from the markets - 65-70% of the population is in the far west of Turkey. So, we had to decide whether to import the wood and be closer to the market, or use domestic wood supplies and be further from the market. In Turkey, the supply of wood really is a big issue," said Mr Yildiz. "Our third MDF line is still ramping up to full production and Starwood, Kastamonu (City), and Turanlar will all be coming to the market with new capacity in 2008, so we do not know what will happen to the market then. We will have added 1,200m³/day, Starwood 600m³, Kastamonu 1,200m³ and Turanlar 600m³. That's 3,600m³ in total and until recently the capacity in the whole of Turkey was less than this! So, for the next years we have some doubts about the market." That begs the question as to why Yildiz Entegre went for particleboard. "Some furniture producers want both particleboard and MDF - and surfaced panels in each that match. We were the only supplier that could not offer this service without buying in the particleboard." Yildiz Entegre exports mainly to the east - Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Iran, Iraq, although Romania and Bulgaria are also joining the customer list, as are parts of north Africa such as Algeria, Libya, Algiers and Morocco. "In order to use our increasing capacity efficiently, our sales people will attend all the fairs," said Mr Yildiz. "The domestic market is becoming over-supplied now and we have to rely more on exports. We are lucky because we have so many different products to offer to the market." For the future, Yildiz Entegre has decided to stop investing in Turkey and look further afield. "We have chosen some land in the south of Russia and will buy in the next few weeks. We also have permissions in Iran and have chosen some land there. "We will order the machinery for those plants in the coming months and will start building a bagasse MDF line in southern Iran this year and we have already reserved production space with Siempelkamp for Russia and Iran. The Iranian machinery will be shipped in November/December this year and that for Russia is reserved for May 2009." The Russian line's ContiRoll will probably be another 55.3m unit, while the Iranian line will be shorter - around 42m - for a capacity of around 550-600m³/day. Pallmann will receive the contracts to supply chippers and refiners. "We have only been in the panel industry for six years, but I am proud to say that we have become the first in sales, capacity and product variety," said Mr Yildiz. "I do not know of another company that has invested so much - e550m - in such a short period. "We like this business and last year we achieved a turnover of e465m in our wood based business."

Balikesir represents the Kastamonu Entegre group's third panel production facility, chronologically, and occupies a large site of 400,000m².   Built in 2005, this line produces around 1,700m³ a day of particleboard in the winter months and 2,000m³ in the summer, on an 18mm basis.   Wood supply is 95% pine and 5% poplar and beech. The pine comes in log form, mostly from state-owned forests, but also with some sawmill slabs and sawdust. All the logs are cut to 1m lengths in the forest, by government order.   Tipper trucks loaded with logs reverse up an incline and empty their load straight into the vibrating feeder for the Pallmann chipper, or it can be fed from the large and very neatly-stacked logyard with a Sennebogen grab crane.   There is a Pal of Italy disc screen in the feeding line to remove some of the contaminants.   The chipper is a PHT 850x1,450mm unit and has a capacity of 120 tonnes per hour (tph) bone dry wood. It is run by two 630kW, 10kV motors.   A covered conveyor by Trasmec of Italy takes the chips up to the flaker building where two Pal screens and a sifter sort the wet macro- and micro-chips and there is then a bank of eight Pallmann PZKR 14-1450 knife ring flakers - four each for the two chip sizes.   Kastamonu Balikesir has two Pallmann robot knife ring sharpeners, designated PZSE 14-450, which fully automatically sharpen and re-set the knife rings for the flakers.   The dryer, installed in September 2005, is by Büttner of Germany. It is 5.6m in diameter and 30m in length and has a capacity of 41tph bone dry.   Oscillating screens by Pal separate core layer and surface layer dry chips, over-size chips and dust and the over-size goes to the Pallmann mill and flaker.   In a sophisticated resin manufacturing operation there are three urea formaldehyde and one melamine formaldehyde, and one formaldehyde, reactor in a dedicated building on the site.   The three urea reactors hold 26 tonnes of urea formaldehyde resin and the melamine reactor holds 15 tonnes.   Methanol from on-site storage tanks is mixed with air and oxygen and passes to the reactor for oxidation.   Formaldehyde gas is fed into the bottom of an absorption column and water into the top and the resulting formaldehyde solution passes to storage tanks to be used in the synthesis of UF resins.   The glue kitchen and dosing system for the particleboard line is by Imal.   Forming is by CMC Texpan, with pneumatic forming for the surface layers and mechanical for the core. It employs four forming heads - two for each.   The Siempelkamp ContiRoll press is 42.1m long and nominally eight feet wide.   Following the press there is a 12-head GreCon thickness/blow detection system after the cross-cut saw and ahead of the three star coolers.   A fully automated intermediate transport and storage system takes the panels for a one-day wait before sanding.   A Steinemann Satos eight-head sander has four calibration and four finishing heads.   Balikesir has a gas turbine for electricity generation and the hot exhaust gas is used to provide heat for the dryer and for the thermal oil heater for the press. The boiler incorporates a combi-burner for gas and sawdust.   In August 2007, a brand new Bürkle direct printing/lacquering line was installed at the Balikesir factory. The total length of the U-shaped line is 220m and it can run at up to 60m/minute, depending whether it is running woodgrain or plain colour finishes.   There are two Wemhöner short-cycle press lines and 65-70% of production is surfaced in this facility, which can handle up to 6,000 boards per day per line, although factory manager Hüsnü Çelen said they have achieved a figure of 7,000. "It depends of course on the board thickness and the type of paper being applied."   Six months after the particleboard line went into production, Kastamonu installed a Vits decor paper impregnation line and has achieved a throughput of an impressive 65m/minute, equivalent, says Mr Çelen, to 4.5 million m2/month. This is all consumed at the Balikesir site.   "We have 140 to 150 different decor designs in total, with 60 to 70 in regular use," said the factory manager.   The Balikesir factory, like the other Kastamonu production facilities, is a well-equipped, modern and efficient operation and is also pretty much self-sufficient in its facilities, with paper impregnation, resin production and short-cycle pressing all available on site.  

It is just a year now since I was brave, or stupid, enough (depending on your point of view) to question whether man's generation of CO2 was really to blame for global warming.
I said in my column in Issue 2, 2007 (April/May) that, while global warming is a fact, the reasons behind it are less certain.

The group is known as Kastamonu Entegre. Entegre translates quite accurately as 'integrated' and that equally accurately describes the nature of this major panel producer with operations both within and without Turkey. The company's original business was in the manufacture of detergents, tissue paper and disposable nappies and that is still a strong side of the group's operations. However, Kastamonu decided to diversify and entered the panel manufacturing business over 30 years ago. The company built its first particleboard plant at Kastamonu City (hence the company name) in the eastern part of the country, in 1971. Today, it also has production sites at Balikesir (see p22), Gebze-Kocaeli and Gebze Tever in Turkey. Outside the national borders, Kastamonu Entegre has a factory which it purchased in Romania, producing plywood, blockboard and HDF doorskins; a paper production facility in Bosnia Herzegovina; and a particleboard and melamine faced particleboard factory in Bulgaria. That first particleboard plant in Kastamonu City was moved to the company's site in Gebze-Kocaeli (Gebze) in 1988 and the Siempelkamp four-daylight press is still in operation there today, producing around 160m³ of particleboard per day. In 1994, the group's first MDF line was built at Gebze, employing a Küsters continuous press. This was also the first continuous MDF line in Turkey, points out operations manager Ahmet Faruk ?i?ci. Current production is around 500m3/day in 4mm to 30mm thicknesses. In 2003, a 20.5m Siempelkamp ContiRoll continuous press was installed at Gebze to produce 2mm to 38mm MDF, with production volumes ranging from 600m³/day for 3mm thickness to 400m³/day for 18mm. Being a short press it is mainly used for thinner board production. So the total production capacity for the site is roughly 1,100-1,200m³ daily. The wood preparation/size reduction equipment for all lines was supplied by Pallmann of Germany, which has supplied almost all such equipment in the country. For value-adding, there are two Wemhöner short-cycle press lines and a Hymmen continuous press to make laminate flooring. This is complemented by two Homag flooring machining lines. There is also a direct printing line. Three decor paper impregnation lines serve only this site and a resin plant supplies resins for both impregnation and panel manufacture. Kastamonu Entegre recently acquired the nearby Tever particleboard line and supplies resin to that facility as well as to the Kastamonu City plant and the Bulgarian operation. The former Tever factory is 10km from Gebze and has a nine-daylight particleboard press and a 1,000m³/day Dieffenbacher continuous press line. Only the Dieffenbacher line is currently running. "We will dismantle that continuous line and move it to this site, while the multi-opening line will remain at the Tever plant and be refurbished," said Mr ?i?ci. "The existing dryer and the woodyard at Tever has been holding back production there. As we move the press here, we will also extend it by 6.7m to 34.7m and we will buy a new dryer for the line. "We will also extend the Küsters press here from 23 to 27m, incorporating a cooling zone, and we expect to achieve an output of 700 to 750m³/day. We already have the new parts for the press and an agreement with Metso Panelboard [made prior to Siempelkamp's purchase of that side of the business]." The whole press is due for a major overhaul at the same time, with all hydraulics being replaced and many other upgrades planned, said M Sisci. The existing old multi-opening line at Gebze will be removed and sold and the Tever continuous line will go in its place. However, the first priority for the group is apparently the inauguration of the new MDF line at the Kastamonu City site, at which time Gebze can 'afford' to stop its production for the six weeks necessary for upgrading there, plus another two weeks to see the line back in full production. The foundations for the extension of the Gebze press were already in at the time of my visit in February, having been excavated and concreted without interrupting production of MDF. Mr ?i?ci is clearly keen to get started on the improvements. At Gebze, the wood raw material is 60% domestically grown and 40% imported logs from a 250km radius - and imported chips from the US (40,000 tonnes every two months). "The Kastamonu City plant utilises 100% domestic wood as does Balikesir," said Mr ?i?ci. "There used to be seven or eight large paper plants in Turkey producing cellulose, but now there are almost none and so the wood supply is easier now. "Our chips are only good quality ones - there is a problem if you don't know the quality of incoming chips." Two into one will go The two continuous press lines - Küsters and Siempelkamp - sit alongside one another in the same production hall at Gebze. Both lines are fed by Pallmann-prepared wood, with two 500x1,050mm PHT chippers with vibrating table and feeder and protected by a Cassell metal detector over the infeed. Bought-in chips can be fed into the same chip line that serves as the outfeed for the Pallmann chippers, or they can also be fed into the line after the wet silo. The refiner for the Siempelkamp line is also by Pallmann and is a 48in unit with 16in plug screw and 3.5MW motor. The same set-up was also employed for the older Küsters line. "We have a mix of mechanical and blowline blending for the MDF resin on the Küsters line and will continue with this once it is extended, but we have only blowline blending on the Siempelkamp line," said Mr Sisci. Energy for Gebze is supplied by three Turkish made boilers with a total capacity of 17 million kcal, while two gas turbines produce 10MW of electricity. The heat and steam from the process are utilised through a specially-designed heat exchanger, which also reduces the noise emissions from the gas turbines. The central control room for both continuous lines employs a total of three people. GreCon blow detection and thickness measurement serves both lines, while fire prevention is handled by a Minimax system. When the extensions and additions are complete, Gebze will install WESPS for all lines' exhaust gases. Sanding of the boards is carried out in an unusual mix of a new four-head Steinemann Satos unit installed in January this year and an elderly Bison six-head unit which is still giving good service. A new Steinemann Satos eight-head sander is on order for the soon-to-be installed particleboard line. The company's first impregnation line came from Tocchio of Italy in 1999 and is now used as the back-up line to a Vits of Germany line, installed in 2003. The third impregnation line, also from Vits, was installed last year. The direct printing/lacquering line was put together by Bürkle of Germany and is secondhand (ex Hornitex and significantly modified since) but has been working well at Gebze for the last four years, said Mr Sisci. As one of the leading companies in the Turkish panel industry, it is clear that the Kastamonu group intends to maintain its momentum, both within and outside the country.

Mehmet Yildiz founded Starwood on virgin land on an industrial site in Inegöl near Bürsa, to the south of the Marmara Sea, in 1989. The company's early days were modest, with secondhand machinery being purchased and installed on the 180,000m² site. The first such line, purchased in 1981, was an 80m³/day single-opening press line and this was followed by a second line of 200m³/day, again bought secondhand. The third plant was bought in 1987 and was also pre-owned. It had a capacity of 500m³/day. These lines were located in Gaziantep, Istanbul and at another site in Inegöl, before the current Inegöl site was purchased. "After that, I promised myself that there would be no more 'old' machinery in my company and for the last 21 years, everything has been purchased new," said Mr Yildiz. "Also, when buying this new equipment, I always go for reputable brands and quality. Sometimes that means paying more, but I am not interested in unknown brand machinery - not even if it was to be offered free." The oldest plant in the Inegöl facility today dates from 1991 and is a single-opening Dieffenbacher press producing between 180 to 270m³/day of particleboard. The wood preparation for this, and all Starwood's panel lines, was supplied by Pallmann of Zweibrücken, Germany - a good example of Mr Yildiz's brand loyalty and he is very enthusiastic in his endorsement of this company. In 1994, Starwood bought the first continuous press in Turkey for project Hacih Salih (all projects are named after a member of the family and this one was named for Mehmet Yildiz's father). It was a 23.5m long ContiRoll from Siempelkamp of Germany and had a nominal capacity of 570m³/day, but has run at up to 1,000m³. In 2004, project Sevim was born. This 47m ContiRoll line can run at up to 1,800m³ /day, depending on product mix. All these lines were equipped with Pallmann wood preparation equipment. In 2007, project Betul marked a complete change of direction for Starwood with the construction of its first line to produce MDF rather than particleboard. Due on stream later this year, the 38.5m ContiRoll continuous press line will produce thin MDF (hence the relatively short press length). Given Mr Yildiz's declared loyalty to suppliers which perform well, you will not be surprised to learn that the green end is being supplied by Pallmann. The refiner is also from the same supplier and is a 54-inch unit. It seems that one line is considered insufficient and a second MDF project will start construction this year and go into production in 2009. This will have a 55m ContiRoll press with a nominal capacity of 1,500m³/day. This time, the Pallmann refiner will be a 62in unit and, as may be judged from the press length, the line is intended to produce thicker MDF panels. The project does not yet have a name, because Mr Yildiz's fifth grandchild has not yet been born but will be soon. This man's commitment to, and pride in, his growing family is immediately evident to any visitor to his impressive office suite. "When all this investment is complete next year, Starwood will have a production capacity of around 5,000m³ of panels a day and that will be 40% of the total Turkish panel capacity," said Mr Yildiz proudly. A lot of that national capacity belongs to the Yildiz family as Mehmet Yildiz's two brothers own the two Yildiz Entegre companies in Turkey, although these are entirely separate businesses. Starwood has chipping plants located in Balikesir and Canakkale, equipped with Pallmann machines and supplying part of the site's wood raw material needs. Turkey is not a country that is well endowed with indigenous wood supplies and yet it has seen dramatic growth in panel production capacity nationally in recent years. I put that point to Mr Yildiz. "It is true that there is not enough wood supply in the country, but if only we could reduce the amount of wood consumed by households for fuel, and increase the use of natural gas, the situation would be better," said Mr Yildiz. "The wood currently used for domestic heating etcetera amounts to 20 billion m³, equivalent to 10 billion tonnes, and if we [the country] supplied natural gas to all of Turkey we could save logs for use in wood products," he pointed out. In the meantime, Starwood imports chips from the US, Canada, Brazil and South Africa, via ports on the Sea of Marmara. "And we still make particleboard competitively," said the chief executive. "Nobody except the Turks understands Turkey - it may look like too much capacity to you, but not to me." Some of Starwood's resin requirement is manufactured on site - mainly melamine for its P7 moisture resistant construction panel - and impregnating resins. The urea formaldehyde resins are bought in from Mr Yildiz's brother's company or another Turkish supplier, MKS. The company exports 30% of its capacity and is able to access markets in Iraq, Iran, all Asian countries and all Turkey's neighbouring countries, points out Mr Yildiz, who feels that western European countries have missed out on that opportunity. "Turkey is a bridge to 300 million people," he said. Innovative value adding Of course, raw board is not sufficient to make money in a competitive international panel market and Starwood has recognised that - very thoroughly. One of its most innovative approaches has been the purchase of a press line specially designed to make lightweight sandwich panels with thin particleboard or MDF faces. These will be marketed as 'Starlight' panels. The press line was developed by Wemhöner of Germany and is a first for them. It was under test at the time of my visit in February. The paper honeycomb core is bought in 'collapsed' and is stretched out and sprayed with hardener before being cold-pressed with the panel faces which have first had glue applied to them. This glue reacts with the hardener to produce the finished sandwich panel. In more 'conventional' value-adding, Starwood has six short-cycle presses from Wemhöner and produces around 25,000 pieces of melamine-faced panels a day, representing 18% of raw board production. It also has a total of five impregnation lines, supplied by Tocchio of Italy. Some impregnated paper is sold to Yildiz Entegre and some is exported. "As I told you, if I like a supplier, I stick with them," said Mr Yildiz. "If they can sell to me they can sell to every manufacturer in Turkey - there are around 20 ContiRoll lines in the country and 34 Wemhöner short-cycle lines. And virtually all panel production lines have Pallmann wood preparation equipment." Mehmet Yildiz has mostly handed over the day-to-day running of the family business to his son Hüseyin Yildiz. Mehmet then has more time to look after his other passion - his grandchildren.

The growth in production volumes of particleboard and MDF in Turkey in recent years has been staggering - and it is still continuing, with new lines under construction and the machinery for others yet to be delivered.   In mid-February, I visited four factories around the country to see for myself the state-of-the-art facilities that some of the major producers are installing for both raw board and value-adding. Their stories unfold in the following pages.   To talk simply of particleboard and MDF raw board production would certainly completely miss the point. The value-adding facilities at each factory I visited were comprehensive and, in some cases, highly innovative.   The word 'Entegre' features strongly in at least two of the company names - Kastamonu Entegre and Yildiz Entegre - and that word translates well into English as 'integrated'. Few other words could sum up as succinctly the approach of these and other Turkish companies to the panel market.   They are all integrated from the arrival of the wood raw material, through the manufacture of resins, to the production of panels, the impregnation of the decor papers, to the lamination of the boards.   In the case of Yildiz Entegre, a producer of thick MDF, further integration involves the production of moulded solid MDF doors and it will soon take delivery of a moulded doorskin production line.   A more basic form of integration can be seen where most manufacturers have added particleboard to their original MDF production, or vice versa, to integrate the range they offer to their customers.   Perhaps the strangest thing about the Turkish panel industry's dramatic growth is the fact that the country is not well-endowed with forests to supply its wood needs. This means that much of the required raw material is imported, either as logs or as chips.   Machinery supplies   Something that is very noticeable as one visits the different panel making companies in Turkey is immense product loyalty in their choices of machinery for their production lines.   If it performs successfully for one panel maker, there seems little chance that a subsequent investment - by that company or its competitors - will not employ the same machine manufacturer again. And that applies 'across the board', from the woodyard to the value-added product.   German size reduction machinery maker Pallmann of Zweibrücken has supplied virtually all the panel mills in Turkey, and certainly all the many recent continuous line projects, with its chippers, flakers and MDF fibre refiners. It has also supplied its fully-automated knife sharpening systems to all the new mills, together with knife ring washing machines.   Similarly, Siempelkamp has supplied almost all the recent continuous presses (the only exception being Kastamonu Entegre's Gebze mill, which is extending its Küsters (Metso Contipress) continuous line).   Other suppliers involved with all the new projects are Imal and Pal of Italy, Steinemann of Switzerland and GreCon and Wemhöner of Germany.   All through one supplier   There is a connection between all these suppliers and that is a German-headquartered company called GIM-Export, based in Göttingen and owned by Michael Krocker.   GIM-Export imports and exports goods for the wood panel industry from flake and fibre preparation equipment from Pallmann to production presses from Siempelkamp and everything including the value adding machinery.   The company also supplies value adding 'consumables' such as decorative papers, foils and press plates for short-cycle presses. Established in 1979, GIM-Export today has 10 employees in its branch in Istanbul, which has good business relationships with all the Turkish panel manufacturers.