Panels & Furniture Asia January/February 2024

NEWS
"From A to Z": Andritz hosts Customer Day
for South East Asian MDF manufacturers
PROPRIETARY MDF REFINER PLATE
TECHNOLOGY
For the second talk, Martin Gaertner,
regional product manager of MDF plates
at Andritz, went in-depth into Andritz's
proprietary technology for their MDF
refiner plates.
From traditional plate designs that
come unsteady cutting conditions,
high variation in fibre geometry, and
higher energy consumption, Andritz has
gradually improved their plate designs to
include spiral, feed control curve (FCC),
and quantum designs.
The latter few designs aim to reduce
variation in fibre geometry and achieve
more uniform fibres, thus generating
better quality, while also reducing energy
consumption and enabling a smoother
refining performance.
The MDF Customer
Day was held in
Bangkok, Thailand
On 9-10 Nov 2023, over 50 participants
from 17 South East Asian mediumdensity
fibreboard (MDF) plants
gathered at Bangkok, Thailand to attend
Andritz's MDF Customer Day.
The Customer Day served to update
Andritz’s South East Asian MDF
customers — a majority of whom are
from Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia
— with their latest technologies and
company performance.
The event kicked off with a slew of talks
on 9 Nov, which ranged from Andritz's
latest developments in thermal and
electrical energy savings to MDF refiner
plate technology and their digitalisation
and automation programme, followed
by a round table discussion with Andritz
specialists on 10 Nov.
updates on Andritz’s sales, projects and
acquisitions.
Pertaining to Andritz's latest projects,
Rupp said that Andritz recently supplied
the world "largest" chip washing and
pressurised refining system to date,
the S2074, a 74in refiner, to Guangxi
Chongzuo Lelin Forestry for their MDF
plant.
This means that "Andritz is in a position
to supply equipment for highest
capacity production too", declared
Rupp.
"The service and the support side from
Andritz are well-proven. And I always
like to say: We want to cover everything
and support our customers from A to Z,
as our name suggests," Rupp said.
In particular, the quantum design has
a longer-lasting lifecycle by evenly
distributing fibres all over the plate-gap
through its unique dam arrangement,
which at the same time also benefits
fibre homogeneity.
Gaertner added: "Another advantage to
the quantum design is versatility. With
the quantum design, we have many more
options to design the refiner plate, so
now we can adapt to the customer needs
and change the design accordingly."
To help Andritz’s MDF customers
better manage their refiner plates, the
group has introduced two online tools:
first, the Plate Change Calculator for
customers to calculate the optimal
lifetime; and second, the Plate
Comparison Tool, which calculates
and compares different Andritz plate
performances.
UPDATES ON ANDRITZ
Michael Rupp, vice-president of
Panelboard Systems at Andritz,
welcomed the MDF producers with
Andritz has also supplied equipment
for the production of insulation boards,
which is a relatively new type of woodpanel
and insulation material.
LIFECYCLE SOLUTIONS FOR WOOD
PROCESSING
True to Rupp's statement that Andritz
provides solutions from “A to Z”, Heikki
8 PANELS & FURNITURE ASIA | JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024