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*Sandvik focus on short-cycle press plates and endless belts for CPL *Pavatex gives Siempelkamp order for wood-fibre insulation board plant *Berneck postpones second continuous press MDF line *Tablemac plans to launch first MDF line at Barbosa *NFP Europe appointed agent for Tecsol *Obituary: Gerhard Dieffenbacher former owner of Dieffenbacher Group *Further plea to cut subsidies for burning wood in power stations *Obituary: Ted Bauer a leading player in the world of MDF *Plywood house building system trialled *Latvian plywood producer posts 20% annual sales growth *Browns picks Caberwood for new plant *Martinsons revokes redundancies plan *Egger records 5% growth in half-year profits *Cowie is first Norbord site to achieve safety milestone in Europe *Slower decline registered in German particleboard exports *Momentous start for Arauco but marred by mill fire *Homatherm reschedules start of ex Isoroy particleboard plant *Pfleiderer continues to grow its revenue and operating income in Q3, 2011 *Kronospan takes OSB plant to Russia *Successful 2011 for Andritz *International Wood Composites Symposium *GreCon wins award for Contilog *Sonae restarts particleboard production at Knowsley *China timber product exports reach US$31.5bn *Kronospan takes train from Devon to Wales *Plywood competitor panel production doubles *Weyerhaeuser joins the TTF *Egger’s new wood recycling plant is opened *Raute receive over €16m orders from Chile *Nordlam expands glulam production *Steico reports reduced profits *New study on effects of mountain pine beetle infestation *Canfor to permanently close two mills *Mary Jo Nyblad assumes APA chairmanship *BSW Timber explores modified wood technology *interzum had 13% more visitors than in 2009 *Xylexpo 2012 looking to 20% increase in show space *Second annual UK Biomass Directory *Dirk Eiynck changes to Vauth-Sagelto to expand innovative capacity *Green and cost-effective sound reduction product *Norbord extends range of particleboard flooring products *New OSB plant to be constructed in Russia *Belarus to invest €500m in particleboard and MDF production by 2016 *Lumin plywood PEFC certified *Poplar Association extends reach *Patent granted for MDF recycling business *Tungsten prices and availability still tense *Significant changes in HPVA Laboratories staffing *Latina conference 2012 on innovation and new challenges *Homag profitability improves in Q3 *Biesse's net losses reduce *NPPD dinner: “Its tough out there” *UK panel product imports grow, solid wood declines *False BBA claims for Pine Deck plywood *Indonesian timber product companies record losses *Major campaign launched to stop trees going up in smoke *Eumabois says a big thank you to Fulvia Scherini *Brazilian laminate floor makers fight off Chinese imports *Eucatex looks to invest in north-east Brazil *Puhos tries to sell off plant assets *Sonae has had to delay Knowsley restart *Norbord reports C$12m earnings and record productivity *New composite material to open up wide range of end-uses *Premier buys assets of FG Hawkes *Masisa opens Chile’s first MDP line *Weyerhaeuser faces challenging markets, but remains in profit *UPM records operating loss for Q3 *Accoya plans international expansion *Pallmann achieves global success with wood shredding technologies *Woodchip take from Karri forest increased *Three new biomass plants could consume the entire UK forest harvest *ZOW Bad Salzuflen 2012 *Interzum Moscow in sixth year *WMF 2012 & FAM 2012 in 14th showing *ZOW Istanbul proving a success *Petri Lakka appointed to Raute executive board *Pfleiderer streamlines its executive board *Third wood pellet conference hosted by Sweden *Finnforest launches panel for railway interiors *UPM donates composite decking for disaster relief *Modified wood specification manual *12th edition of WoodMac China *Change of head of marketing at Steinemann *Furniture grade OSB gains market share *Kronospan builds Belarus wood processing plant *Biesse acquires Chinese machinery maker
Archives » 2007 » Feb/Mar 07
  • TECHNICALLY SPEAKING
    Published:  14 February, 2007
    All wood based panels which are dry to the touch will shrink and swell as atmospheric conditions around them change. The amount of change is dependent on how high or low the humidity and temperature are, relative to typical conditions, and how long the adverse conditions last.   The dynamic nature of the system will cause moisture gradients within panels and these can lead to internal stresses caused by differential swelling or shrinking. This can result in delamination and splitting, most often seen in veneer based products like plywood. It can also cause warping if one side has swollen or shrunk more than the other.   Warping is a general term used to describe any movement that causes a panel to lose its shape. Cupping is generally associated with flooring where the edges are raised above the middle of the panel and crowning is the opposite of this. Twisting describes the warping in the plane of a panel such that at least one corner is higher than the others. Bowing is curvature of the face. Crook or spring is a curvature of the panel edge. This last type is rare in wood based panels and where it does occur is often associated with inaccurate machining rather than moisture-induced distortion.   Warping, and in particular bowing, can also occur if the panel is not symmetrical through its thickness. For example particleboard that has been sanded more on one face than the other or OSB where the top surface layer is thicker than the bottom.   The amount of differential shrinkage or swelling required to cause warping can be very small. Take for example a flooring product that is 100mm wide and 1.4m long with a 10mm bow in the middle. The difference in length between the bottom and upper face can be estimated via simple trigonometry (see diagram). The sum of the two hypotenuses will provide a rough estimate of the swelling required in the top face to cause 10mm of bow. In this case, the two hypotenuses add up to 1400.143 when rounded to three decimal points. This tells us that if the surface length swells by only 0.01% more than the bottom, we can expect a bow of 10mm.   Admittedly, this method underestimates the differential swelling required, but not by much.   This simple calculation also illustrates why it is important to have expansion gaps around the edges of floating floors.  

  • Dress sense for panels
    Published:  14 February, 2007

    ZOW 2007 will display a diversity of products in every product group, thematically arranged under the categories: 'Fittings: Furniture in Motion', 'Elements & Systems: Furniture with Added Value' and 'Materials & Surfaces: Furniture Protection and Style' with 'Logistics' being a new sector to be introduced this year.

  • Mixed fortunes in world OSB markets
    Published:  14 February, 2007
    As we start a new year, the tables have very much turned in the OSB industry worldwide, as our surveys in this issue reveal.
    In last year's report on the market in 2005, North American mill owners were well inside their 'comfort zone' after three years of unprecedented demand and the associated bumper profits. However, they were, it is fair to say, viewing 2006 with some caution as forecasters talked of a marked fall in housing demand. The reality was far worse.

  • Panels from certified logs
    Published:  14 February, 2007

    Right beside the wide and majestic Mahakam river sits the extensive veneer based products factory of Sumalindo Lestari Jaya (SLJ). Founded in 1980 as a natural forest concession holder and plywood manufacturer in Samarinda on Borneo, PT Sumalindo Lestari Jaya (SLJ) is still producing up to 15,000m3/month of plywood at its Loa Janan factory on the edge of this capital city of Kalimantan Timur province (p50). The company also diversified into MDF in 1994, building a factory up-river from Samarinda (see p44), while more recently it has also gone into the production of laminated veneer lumber (LVL) at Loa Janan. All that manufacturing capacity requires a secure and sustainable wood resource and SLJ has expended considerable effort on that front in recent years.

  • Logging efficiency
    Published:  14 February, 2007

    Right beside the Mahakam river sits the extensive veneer based products factory of Sumalindo Lestari Jaya (SLJ). That river provides the factory's lifeline as logs are floated from its concessions in Kalimantan right into the factory premises. The current factory at Loa Janan dates from 1982 when it had four production lines. In 1984, two 'jumbo' lines were added and in 1990 the company added a two-daylight Raute press for the application of paper overlay, phenolic film facing and decorative v-grooved panels. There are three main product lines manufactured here.

  • Vanachai goes for expansion
    Published:  13 February, 2007

    Vanachai's 350-acre industrial site outside the southern city of Suratthani saw its first panel production line in 1997. This took the form of a Siempelkamp ContiRoll continuous press line with a capacity of around 300,000m3/year of particleboard. It was of course clear that a site on such a grand scale was not going to stop at one particleboard factory and in 2004 a second ContiRoll press line - and the third continuous line for the group, which also has production sites in Chonburi and Chachoengsao - started production with a particleboard capacity of 450,000m3/year (WBPI issue 1, 2005, p29).

  • SPF HAS PLANS
    Published:  13 February, 2007

    On my last visit to Indonesia at the end of 2005, it was not practicable for me to visit Sumatera Prima Fibreboard's (SPF) MDF line, but WBPI carried my interview with marketing manager Mr Tee TK in Jakarta about the company and the national issues with which it, and all panel lines there, have to deal (issue 1, 2006, p48). In December 2006 I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to visit that MDF mill and to talk to SPF's operations director John Hendarso about the 'birth' of the line - the company's first in panel manufacturing - in 2003 and about the company's plans for future expansion.

  • Learning on the job
    Published:  13 February, 2007

    Not only has SPB Panel Industries Co Ltd started up its first particleboard line, in Suratthani in southern Thailand, but this is also the company's first venture into the panel business.   The parent company, SPO Agro-Industries Co Ltd, is focused entirely on coconut and palm oil extraction and first decided to go into particleboard production as a diversification in 2001 (WBPI issue 1, 2006, p33).   Thus Seang-Siri Particleboard was formed, Ligna 2003 was visited, and a contract was signed with Dieffenbacher for the complete line in July 2004.

  • The jungle is no obstacle
    Published:  13 February, 2007

    My journey to visit a mill I have long wanted to see began with a two-hour flight from Jakarta on Java island to Balikpapan on the east coast of the island of Borneo, in the Indonesian province of Kalimantan. Then came a two-and-a-half hour drive north to Samarinda, arriving at midnight. I was glad to put off the rest of the journey to the mill in Tanjung Harapan until the morning and to check into an hotel in Samarinda, a quite large town supported principally by coal and oil.

  • GREEN RIVER RISING
    Published:  13 February, 2007

    When Green River Panels (Thailand) Co Ltd produces its first particleboard panel in Songkhla province in the third quarter of this year, it will also be producing the first panel product the Green River Wood and Lumber group has ever made. Established over 18 years ago, this Taiwanese company is headquartered in Port Klang in Malaysia. It specialises in the production of furniture in the mid-to higher-price range, with its main manufacturing bases in Malaysia, Vietnam and China.

  • A growing family of panels
    Published:  13 February, 2007

    We are becoming regular visitors to the Metro-Ply group of companies as it continues to add new panel manufacturing capacity to its range. In 2005 we reported on the construction of the company's first particleboard line, at Sai Noi, near Bangkok (WBPI issue 1 2005, p34). This line was equipped with a Siempelkamp ContiRoll continuous press which was 23.8m long - at the time. Metro had always intended to extend the length of that press and the foundations were laid with that in mind, while ancillary equipment was designed with the capacity to cater for that extension and its increased capacity.

  • Making plans
    Published:  12 February, 2007

    The turbulent history of the former STA wood processing complex on its one square kilometre site in Hat Yai has been well-documented in WBPI over the last 10 years. Our most recent reports (issue 1, 2005, p42), described how MP Particleboard of Thailand and Evergreen Fibreboard of Malaysia formed a joint venture to save a major part of that original multi-wood-product project by taking on the two particleboard and two MDF production lines and beginning to restore them.

  • A long journey to the market
    Published:  12 February, 2007

    When Ms Amporn Kanjanakumnerd, managing director of MP Particleboard, set about taking over the former STA panel production lines in 2002, she began a journey that was long and arduous, but which resulted in the resurrection of two particleboard lines. At first, they went under the name of Hat Yai Panel, but this was later changed to Panel Plus Co Ltd (WBPI issue 1, 2005, p38).

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