PR: 36846
27 May 2015

Norbord invents system to reuse waste material; and improve product!

 Norbord's South Molton site has helped lower the risk of fire and, ultimately,
enhanced the quality of the final wood panel product

A project to reduce waste wood chip at panel manufacturer, Norbord's South Molton site has helped lower the risk of fire and, ultimately, enhanced the quality of the final wood panel product.

Raw wood chip at the mill has traditionally been ‘cleaned' using air density separation where blown air helps to lift the lighter wood chip away from heavier contaminates such as stones, glass and metals. However, the team was finding the process inefficient as it was producing as much wood chip waste as heavy contaminate collection. This all had to be sent to landfill which was wasteful and expensive.

The Waste Management team at South Molton looked at the problem and came up with a solution: a float-sink process which would allow all the wood chip to float through the system and the contaminants to sink and be collected, followed by an eddy current separator which would further sort the contaminates into non-ferrous metals, such aluminium and copper, and other waste. The scrap metal now provides a useful source of income.

As the team could not find any one piece of equipment on the market that suited their needs, they had to design and build the pre-cleaning system themselves. Engineering Projects Manager, Justin Smyth, said: "Being able to start a project like this from scratch has been a great experience and it brought a whole range of special skills together, including our in-house engineering and electrical teams, as well as involving our PLC engineer to help programme the system so we can integrate and control all the processes. We also involved outside contractors to ensure compliance of safety systems in line with PUWER regulations."

The team is now working on integrating the pre-cleaning system into the rest of the plant so that cleaned wood chip is transported directly into the wood chip silo so increasing the capacity of the new system to meet the entire production demand.

Norbord is one of the world's leading manufacturers of engineered wood-based panels; including OSB (the largest manufacturer in the world), Caberwood MDF, particleboard, flooring systems and Contiboard.

For further information on Norbord, please call 01786 812 225 or visitwww.norbord.co.uk.

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With compliments:
Alison Relf
Taylor Alden Ltd
Unit 2, Temple Place
247 The Broadway
London
SW19 1SD
Tel: 020 8543 3866
Email: alison@tayloralden.co.uk