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Llandudno, on the coast of north Wales,once again supplied unseasonably

warm, and dry, spring-like weather as over100 delegates assembled from 28 countriesat the North Wales Conference Centre forthe three days of the ninth EPPS.

They came from South East Asia, Japan,China, Africa, the Middle East, Australiaand New Zealand, North and SouthAmerica and all areas of Europe to learnabout the latest developments in five ses-sions covering: OSB; Technology;Challenges for the industry; The built envi-ronment; and Fundamentals.

Encouragingly, this year more than 25%of those delegates were there representingpanel manufacturing companies – anincrease on previous years as this sympo-sium becomes increasingly popular for itsmix of scientific, technical and more ‘com-mercial’ presentations.

Opening the symposium, Dr PaulFowler, head of organisers theBioComposites Centre of the University ofWales, Bangor, reflected on a rather tumul-tuous year for his organisation, due to rede-velopment of buildings at the university.

“We’ve moved offices and are currentlyengaged in a major capital project to re-invigorate our flagship MDF pilot line in anew facility on the island of Anglesey. Wealso plan an engineered wood products testplant at the same location,” said Dr Fowler.

He also informed delegates of the instal-lation of a multi-purpose reactor vessel atthe Anglesey base to carry out resin devel-opment and to scale up resin process

improvements from the laboratory.“In more general terms, the formalde-

hyde question remains and we are workingon formaldehyde-free bio-based resins withperformance to equal petrochemical-basedresins.

“The EC Incineration Directive – to burnor not to burn – is an important topic too.Should we as an industry be lobbying toban the [indiscriminate] burning of woodproducts?”.

Making a welcome return as keynotespeaker was the former head of theBioComposites Centre (he left five yearsago) and now with Ensis in Australia, DrJamie Hague.

“Ensis is a trans-Tasman team joint ven-ture led from Victoria, Australia combiningAustralia’s CSIRO (CommonwealthScientific and Industrial Organisation) andScion, which is the trading name of theNew Zealand Forest Research Institute.

“The joint venture is a combination ofAustralasia’s two leading forest researchagencies’ talents and resources,” said DrHague. “It is a world-scale operation, notjust operating in Australasia, with 325 scien-tific and technical staff. It is the doorway tothe entire CSIRO and Scion network ofresearch.”

Looking at the major challenges facingthe wood processing industry, the speakerhighlighted resource quality and variability,the product development cycle (longer thanit is for steel, plastics and concrete) andenvironmental impact, particularly withregard to preservation treatments and

volatile organic compounds (VOCs).“It takes 25 years to know if you got

your tree breeding right and about 10 yearsto test wood protection systems,” pointedout Dr Hague, who also highlighted prod-uct robustness and changing consumerexpectations as challenges to be faced.

Looking at the future prospects for engi-neered wood products or EWPs (in whichhe includes all panel product types as wellas LVL), the speaker said that he feltAustralasia has an uncertain future, withfurther rationalisation likely and he cited theimminent takeover of Carter Holt Harveyespecially affecting particleboard (WBPIAug/Sep 2005, p8).

He also suggested that China’s MDFcapacity would present tough times and abig threat for the industry.

“Probably the most uncertainty sur-rounds the future of the MDF industry, inparticular that located in New Zealand,”said Dr Hague. “The industry infrastructureis ageing, with few prospects of investmentin the near future.

“LVL appears to have a solid future andthe plywood industry will likely survive for anumber of years.”

Dr Hague said that, in contrast to theAustralasian industry, he felt that the globalEWP industry potentially has much betterprospects.

“The forest industry worldwide faces anumber of major challenges. Key issues thatremain to be addressed going forward areenvironmentally acceptable methods ofimparting durability to products, minimis-

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The ninth edition of the annual European PanelProducts Symposium (EPPS 9) took place inOctober in Llandudno, north Wales, and attractedan impressive array of international delegates to hear 24 presentations on a widerange of subjects, as Mike Botting reports

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ing or eliminating the emission of formalde-hyde and other potentially harmful VOCsfrom products and reducing or eliminatingthe dimensional instability of reconstitutedproducts – that is, the supply of productswith consistent, guaranteed properties,”concluded the keynote speaker.

Session 1, simply titled ‘OSB’, wasopened by Robert Loth, owner of woodsize-reduction machinery maker B Maier ofBielefeld, Germany.

Mr Loth explained how he felt that theuse of his company’s new high-speed knifering flaker and improved cleaning andscreening systems to replace hammermilling could be employed to reduce costswhile improving board quality in particle-board, with particular reference to the useof recycled wood.

For screening and cleaning, Maier’s sys-tem separates the chip flow into five frac-tions: 0-4mm for burning, 4-8mm bypassingthe knife ring flaker to prevent jamming inthe flaker, 8-25mm micro-chips, 25-50mmmacro-chips and over 50mm to oversize bin.

“The macro-chips are the ones in whichthe knife-ring flaker produces optimal flakeswith high capacity and low energy con-sumption,” claimed Mr Loth.

The company’s new knife ring flaker has60 knives instead of the more common 48,a specially developed knife angle and a clearrelief angle as well as improved flake flow toproduce undamaged flakes and to reduceflaker wear, said the speaker, who also dis-cussed Maier’s unique heavy particle separa-tor incorporating a non-ferrous separator.

Mr Loth said that his two-stage flakingsystem could produce OSB flakes from allkinds of wood raw material, including recy-cled, and that he had successfully produced16mm OSB board in industrial scale tests.

The next speaker was Dr Terry Connersof the University of Kentucky, whose pres-entation title was ‘The influence of knifeangle and ambient temperature on finesgeneration from knife flakers’.

His research was carried out at a south-ern pine OSB mill in the US and was con-cerned with reducing fines for two main rea-sons: to improve board quality, whileincreasing production and wood utilisation;and to reduce VOC emissions from driedwood particles.

He found that fines generation could besignificantly reduced at the flaker by adjust-ing sharpness angles as ambient tempera-ture varies.

The reason for these findings is not yetfully understood, admitted Dr Conners, and

further research is underway to determinethe underlying mechanism.

An interesting paper, which offered thepossibility to expand the range of end-usesof OSB into non-commodity areas, waspresented by Steffen Tobisch of the Institutefor Wood Technology (IHD), Dresden.

Traditionally, moulded furniture partshave been produced from veneer-basedproducts, but what if OSB could replace ply-wood here as in many other applications?

Dr Tobisch reported success in post-moulding OSB panels in a two-step processby using resin systems which were not fullycured in the first pressing. This involved amix of thermoplastic and thermosettingadhesives.

The results were successful and thespeaker added that coating during themoulding process – with veneers for exam-ple – was also possible.

Next, Paul Bertheras of MobiusTechnologies offered a novel use for wastepolyurethane foam. He showed that, whenmixed with pMDI binder, finely ground PUfoam can be used in the bonding system forparticleboards.

This not only provides a use for scrappolyurethane foam from trimming at theproduction sites, as well as cleaned post-consumer scrap foam, but also reducespMDI consumption.

Promising laboratory results at 10% sub-stitution suggest larger scale tests are worth-while to determine optimum levels of addi-tion of PU powder to pMDI binder inorder to maximise cost reductions, said MrBertheras. This may be up to 15 or 20%, heclaimed.

On- and off-line characterisation of thestructural properties of OSB was the subjectof Burkhard Plinke, Fraunhofer WKI,Braunschweig, Germany.

“The quality parameters of OSB are sur-face homogeneity, density distribution in-plane and surface evenness and these areaffected by flaking, mat forming and press-ing,” explained the speaker.

He then outlined on-the-line mat moni-toring by CCD camera with imagesprocessed by StrandSize software. With theuse of other additional software, orientationangle and ratio can now be continuouslymonitored and used for process optimisa-tion, said Mr Plinke.

Thermographic inspection of density dis-tribution behind the press and surfacetopography measurement of the evenness ofOSB surfaces were also reported, togetherwith statistical analysis of strand shape

parameters. The latter analysis shows theinfluences of drying and transport processes.

Session 2, ‘Technology’, was kicked offby Jörg Hasener of Fagus-GreCon Gretenof Alfeld, Germany.

He described the GreCon equipmentavailable for online ultrasonic measurementfor real-time quality control and processoptimisation and the company’s new ct-Concept (see p26).

‘Service concept for preventive and on-condition maintenance’ was presented byTrajan Sandweg of Siempelkamp Maschinenund Anlagenbau, Krefeld, Germany.

Mr Sandweg explained howSiempelkamp’s Prod-IQ process control sys-tem has been adapted to a web-based sys-tem Prod-IQ.maintenance to allow for theuse of process data as a maintenance trig-ger, with the system receiving informationfrom sensors on the actual state and wear ofeach sensor-monitored component. Thisreplaces run-to-failure maintenance andperiodic preventive maintenance with pre-dictive (on-condition) maintenance, thusreducing downtime and maintenance costs,said Mr Sandweg.

The next speaker was Matthias Fuchs,technical director of Electronic WoodSystems (EWS) of Hameln, Germany.

Pointing out the disadvantages of over-or under-drying the raw material for panelproduction to both quality and economy ofmanufacture, Mr Fuchs reviewed three pos-sible systems for moisture measurement:non-contact infra-red; microwave; and resist-ance-based systems. He also described a newlaboratory moisture measurement methodemploying a dual microwave sensor headwith automatic compensation for changes indensity and temperature (see p37).

The final presentation of the first day ofEPPS was given by Lars Karlsson of TriInnovations AB (TRIAB) of Sweden.‘Powder coating in the MDF industry’ cov-ered the use of ultra-violet-cured (UV) andultra-low bake (ULB) application systems.

He explained that UV coating involvesmelting and curing in separate steps, whileULB is a process of thermosetting/melting,with curing being a product of time andtemperature.

The former produces a hard surface suit-able even for worktops, while the latterprocess is more suited to vertical/lower wearapplications, he said. Heat impact in ULBcan cause problems of cracking in theMDF substrate and in all cases, the internaland surface quality of the MDF is critical.

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industry’ was opened by Dr John Sharp,who reported on his Advance ResinTechnology (ART) for low-emission panels.

He summarised the problems with tradi-tional UF resins, which he claimed have notkept up with other panel productionadvances and have not been sufficiently pre-dictable in their reactions.

“When using often poor quality andhighly variable wood raw material withresultant swings in furnish moisture contentetc, the press operator is usually workingclose to or on the edge. The last thing heneeds is variations in the resin as well,” saidDr Sharp. “A radical re-thinking of UFresins was needed.”

Dr Sharp’s ART process is designed tomake the resin behave predictably.

“By controlling the process strictly on atime basis throughout the batch production,and by imposing conditions on molar ratio,temperature and pH, the resin has no alter-native but to follow a particular, pre-ordained, chemical pathway – it goes whereit is told to go,” he said.

Firstly, he sought out more efficient resinperformance and secondly he fixed the reac-tion pathway “so that every time we want tomake a particular resin, it will come outexactly the same way. This is ART – a wholenew philosophical approach to resinmaking.”

The next speaker, Stephen Young ofTimberTest Laboratories of New Zealand,who also had a booth in the Forum at thesymposium, asked: “Formaldehyde emissionfrom solid wood – will it become an issue?”He followed this question with another,related one: “Is there a monster in theforest?”

He tested the formaldehyde release fromradiata pine (the mainstay of the NewZealand forest products industry) withNorway spruce and Douglas fir for compar-ison and concluded that air dried radiatapine gave similar formaldehyde emission towood from seven other tree species and thatresults after air drying for all samples wasless than a third of the Japanese F****limit. Sixteen days after high temperaturedrying, emissions were close to that limit butwithin one month, reduced to about a thirdof it.

“There is no monster in the forest,” con-cluded Mr Young, no doubt to everyone’srelief!

Continuing the emissions theme,Mathias Makowski of BFH, Hamburg,Germany, reported on ‘Influences on VOCemissions of wood based panels’. His work

related to OSB.He found that hot stacking lowered emis-

sions of terpenes, while aldehydes areformed after manufacturing and reach theirhighest level during stacking, and thendecay.

The next presentation was by GeorgeGoroyias of Jaakko Pöyry Consultingwhich, with its sister company ILEXEnergy, looked at the implications of bioen-ergy for the panel industry with regard tothe Renewables Obligation.

“The panel industry is the largest con-sumer of recycled wood, using more than80% of the current supply, while 180,000tonnes is used as biofuel by the energyindustry,” he said.

Dr Goroyias concluded that, at this earlystage of biomass energy development, accu-rate predictions are difficult, but it is clearthat the energy sector could become a signif-icant consumer of wood based and othermaterials.

Session 4, the built environment, offeredthree presentations. The first was by profes-sor Michael Benfield on Timber FrameFutures, related to the UK market. He saidthat the UK Timber Frame Association pre-dicts that 23% of all housing will be timberframe by 2007 (in 1990 it was 5%).

“Timber satisfies the environmental needsof sustainability and is therefore becomingpromoted as the preferred material for envi-ronmental construction,” said the speaker.

“Perhaps it would be wise for manufac-turers and suppliers to become more proac-tive, partnering members of the overall con-struction supply chain.”

‘High precision machining of MDF com-posites’ was presented by Dr Mark Luty, amechanical design engineer who had tried tobuild a modular pre-finished housing systemusing various MDF composite panels.

He concluded that improvements toMDF quality were required and that anMDF/HDF/MDF composite panel wasneeded, together with a technique whichcould increase the density of the panel jointinterfaces.

Dr Mizi Fan of the Building researchEstablishment (BRE) in the UK concludedthe session with a report on his work onedge-wise load performance of panels.

The final half-day of EPPS 9 brought ses-sion 5: Fundamentals.

The first presentation, by Jo Mattheij ofDSM Melamine, was on the instability ofMUF resins. He concluded that it is possibleto develop ultra-stable MUF resins byadjusting pH and controlling optimum con-

densation times.Next came ‘Optimisation of wood based

panel properties by heat pre-treatment’, byWulf Paul of BFH.

The objective was to improve thicknessswell and weathering characteristics of pan-els for use in exterior applications. Mr Paulfound that heat pre-treatment of particle-board chips did give improved thicknessswell and absorption behaviour with goodtechnical properties too. Reduced strengthof the chips was compensated by the use ofpMDI adhesives and Mr Paul said that theprocess was also suitable for the manufac-ture of OSB.

Professor Joseph Tesha of the Universityof Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, returned toEPPS for his third presentation (previousones were in 2000 and 2001) and reportedon his work on the effectiveness of bothsteam and alkali treatments of rice husksused in particleboard manufacture inimproving adhesion.

He found that alkali treatment improvesthe internal bond strength and flexuralstrength by partial removal of impuritiesfrom the rice husk surface, as long as alkaliconcentrations were below 2%. Steam treat-ment also improved mechanical propertiesby 30 to 300%.

Dr Milan Sernek from Slovenia looked atthe influence of press temperature on curingand strength of MUF bonds and found thatincreased press temperature accelerates thecuring process and shear strength, allowingreduced pressing times.

The final presentation of this year’s sym-posium was given by Kristoffer Segerholmfrom the Royal Institute of Technology,Stockholm, Sweden, on wood-plastic com-posites made from acetylated wood and itseffects on water vapour absorption behav-iour and durability.

Delegates left Llandudno with a wealthof information to take back to their dailyworking lives in their far-flung homelands.Whether those delegates came from universi-ties, equipment suppliers, resin makers orpanel manufacturers, they must all havelearned a lot of useful things during thetwo-and-half day symposium, as well asestablishing lasting contacts and networkingopportunities with others in the industry.Next year, EPPS will celebrate its 10th edi-tion (October 11-13, 2006). ■■

Copies of this and previous year’s proceedings areavailable from the BioComposites Centre, UWB,Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2UW, or go to:www.bc.bangor.ac.uk

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