Pioneering particle board technology Sonae Industria

PIONEERING PARTICLE BOARD TECHNOLOGY

Sonae Industria is a global leader in the design and manufacture of wood based panels including particleboard and medium density fibreboard. Philip Yorke looks at the latest developments that are taking place at the company.

Sonae Industria was founded in 1959 in Maiai, Portugal, which remains the site of its headquarters today. Initially the company focused on the production of high-pressure decorative laminates. However, its expansion and diversification began in 1971 when it took control of Novopan, a leading particleboard company located near Oporto, Portugal. At the same time, the first melamine surfacing production line was installed and the company began components production for the furniture and interior decoration industries. Following consistent growth over the years, it has become one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of wood-based panels.

Today Sonae Industria operates 34 plants located in nine countries on three continents, with almost 5000 employees and a consolidated turnover of more than €1.3 billion.

Multi-faceted producer

Sonae Industria is one of the world’s largest and most diverse operators in its sector and is completely focused on the production of wood-based panels. The company operates three core divisions which cover raw board products, high value-added products and production processes. In the raw board products sector Sonae manufactures particleboard (PB), medium density fibreboard (MDF) orientated strand board (OSB) and

hardboard. The company’s high value-added products include melamine-faced boards, high pressure laminates and flooring.

Particleboard is at the core of the company’s product range and is the most common type of wood-based panel in the world. This is because it is a very versatile product in terms of its potential uses and applications. The standard particleboard from Sonae offers a uniform, smooth and clean surface on a conventional three-layer panel. It can be used raw, or surfaced with wood veneers, melamine decorative papers or even thin foils and is available in a wide range of sizes and thicknesses.

The company’s melamine faced boards also offer very flexible solutions with regard to colour, pattern and size for both furniture and interior decoration applications. This is coupled with a high resistance to chemical and mechanical agents. Another key Sonae product is its orientated strand board (OSB) which is engineered for structural and non-structural use in the building industry. The three bonded layers of resinous wood strands arranged at right angles to one another, provide a strong and stable panel that is free of defects and offers a high resistance to moisture.

UAE opens doors

The Middle East has always been an important market for Sonae Industria and this was highlighted recently when it won a major contract to supply materials to the Cleveland Clinic in Abu Dhabi. This is a luxurious hospital complex located in the capital of the United Arab Emirates, that will open its doors shortly to over 5500 doctors who will serve 175 medical departments.

In addition, the Cleveland Clinic is also building high-quality residences for the many thousands of top professionals to be employed by the hospital. The special materials provided for this major building project include Sonaepan MDF FF (with no added formaldehyde) coated in melamine paper. This solution has many versatile applications for architects and planners alike and Sonae Industria is one of the few exclusive suppliers of this type of MDF in the Persian Gulf market. It is also one of a very limited number of worldwide manufac-

turers of this material, which is becoming increasingly popular as a result of it being more environmentally friendly.

Nuno Magalhaes, commercial manager of the UAE market, said: “Sonae Industria has the technology, but above all the quality that makes them desirable in markets and projects of reference. The United Arab Emirates projects have been successful, which permits us to start consolidating this position of reference.”

Thanks to its strategy of market diversification, Sonae Industria has been successful in winning a number of other major contracts in the UAE. This includes the supply of materials for the new head office of a leading American oil company in Abu Dhabi. Today Sonae Industria’s ongoing investments in the UAE continue to pay dividends.

New biomass plant

In another move to increase its product diversification, Sonae Industria has been contracted to build a new forest biomass plant in Magualde, Portugal. The new agreement was concluded following a proposal made for a public tender process launched by the DGEG (The Portuguese General Directorate for Energy and Geology). Under this agreement Sonae Industria will be responsible for the construction of a new forest biomass plant in Magualde, at the same location where it has already installed a modern MDF plant. The thermal energy created by the new biomass plant will fuel the company’s MDF plant at the same site.

The new biomass plant will also be able to inject up to 10MVA of electricity to the public grid. This is another major project for Sonae Industria and represents an investment of more than €22 million. n

For further details of Sonae Industria’s innovative products and services visit: www.sonae-industrias-tafisa.com