WHAT IS A PARTICLE BOARD?

PARTICLE BOARD:

 

        Particle board is a sheet material manufactured from small particles of wood. The size of the particles varies from about 1mm to about 4mm. The particles are mixed with synthetic resin and sheets are formed under heat and pressure.

These particles are obtained from the wood of either small size plantations or roots and branches of felled trees or saw mill waste or agro wastages like biogases, rice husks etc.

This wood is first chipped in to small chips and these chips are shredded into small particles/flakes. These particles/flakes are the dried in steam-heated/rotary driers to reduce the moisture. Then these are sieved to sort out into a] fine particles, b] less-fine particles and c]course particles. Course particles are sent back for reprocessing. The fine particles and not-so-fine particles are blended with resin separately to make desired pastes. The mat with fine particles is much denser than mat with not-so-fine particles.

With these pastes, mats are laid one above the other in three layers, as shown above. Then this composite-mat is pressed either by cold press method or by hot press method. Thus pressed particle board, is then trimmed to size and finished by sanding/polishing. The sanding is carried out on both the surfaces and all the four edges.

            Though most of the particle boards are of 3 layers with varying density, particle boards with uniform density are also not uncommon. The finer density layers, in a 3 layer particle board, improve the surface finish and abrasion resistance.

            Particle boards are eco-friendly as these are made from waste wood. Even though these are yet to become popular for furniture made on site, it would be obligatory for us to use these in short point in time from date.

            The thicknesses available for particle boards are 12mm, 15mm, 18mm, and 25mm. The overall sizes available are 1.22 m x 2.44 m, 1.84m x 2.74 m and 1.84 m x 3.66 m. Also these are available in two grades, namely ‘Exterior grade’ and ‘Interior grade’. Exterior grade sheets are water resistant and interior grade sheets are not.