MDF Production Process
In a nutshell, wood is crushed into chips, refined into fibre, mixed with glue and wax and compressed under a high temperature hot press. This in turn cures the glue which then binds the fibre together to become raw MDF.
This raw MDF is then conditioned, sanded, cut and packed before it is ready for sale.
Wood Preparation
The bark in the rubber wood branches are debarked in order to ensure quality and also remove the latex which is commonly found on the bark of the wood.
The debarked branches are chipped together with the other wood materials and the chips goes through a chip screening process. Strong magnets in the screening process remove metals which may be found in the wood while oversized chips are separated and sent for re-chipping to ensure that only optimal and uniformed sized chips are used to maintain consistency in quality.
The wood chips will then be steamed in a digester where paraffin wax is added for a smoother surface and to give it a better water repellency property.
Finally, the waxed and steamed wood chips will refined into fibre, where resin is added. The fibre is then dried to a required moisture content level before undergoing a shifting process where only high quality fibre that meets the correct specification will be allowed to be transferred to the Mat Former.
MDF Production
At the Mat Former, the fibre will be laid out in the correct height and density before passing through a Metal Detector and a Density Scanner before reaching the Hot Press for pressing. If either the Metal Detector or the Density Scanner detect any problems within the Pre-Press Mat, the conveyor belt will drop to purge and reject the problematic fibre mat and prevent it from reaching the Hot Press.
At the Hot Press, the fibre mat will be compressed while undergoing a continuous press and the high temperature in the Hot Press will cure the resin, activating it to bind the fibre together. This compressed and resin cured fibre will come out of the out-feed as raw board.
The raw board will then be cut into master panel sizes before it is sent to the Star Cooler for about an hour for the board to cool down naturally. The master panels will then been stacked and further conditioning for an additional 3 to 5 days
Finishing End
After conditioning, the master panel will be sent for sanding where the surface is sanded to ensure a uniform smoothness while the thickness of the board will be calibrated during this sanding process.
The sanded board will then be cut to size, packed and sent to the warehouse where it will be arranged for dispatch out of the factory.
Quality Assurance
Throughout, the entire production process from the receipt of the incoming raw materials to the finished packed board, stringent quality checks are monitored in every section of the entire process.