The new wood-fiber insulation board line operates successfully
A convincing concept
The new plant for the production of thick wood-fiber insulation boards for Gutex Holzfaserplattenwerk GmbH & Co, KG, Waldshut-Tiengen, Germany, started operation in February of 2006. Siempelkamp’s newly developed method for producing these boards using a continuous dry-manufacturing process set a milestone in regards to board quality and operating costs.
The raw material for the production of insulation boards are wood chips. The fiber preparation in a refiner is part of the customer’s scope of supply. The difference to the traditional wet-manufacturing process is a newly developed bonding system. After the fibers are dried in a flash dryer, they are blended with isocyanate resin. Also new: After pre-pressing, the mat enters a calibration and curing device based on the ContiTherm® preheater. Here, the mat is heated rapidly by blowing a steam-air mixture through it.
This new method of spraying dry fibers with resin inside a tower was researched in depth, developed, and tested by the Siempelkamp Research and Development Department. Numerous test runs under real conditions finally led to a breakthrough. A full-scale resin tower was set up at the research and development center in Krefeld where its efficiency was tested. After continuous positive test runs, the tower was disassembled and together with another tower of the same design integrated into the new line.
The advantages of this new blending method can be found in material savings (resin), the ability to apply an exact resin dosage, and a better control of all technological processes. Thus, resin built-up inside the tower is avoided as much as possible. The entire air management system in connection with the geometry of the tower was tested to perfection. The blended fibers are spread onto a forming belt using a mat forming machine with a leveling unit. After pre-pressing, the mat enters the adapted ContiTherm®. For the new concept, the ContiTherm® was equipped with an extended calibration zone. The steam-air mixture can now reliably heat even the thickest mats (up to 50 cm after the pre-press) and cure the resin in the calibration zone.
