Panels & Furniture Asia January/February 2024

PANEL MANUFACTURING
Specialists in
resin formulation
and application
As raw material prices increase and
sustainability credentials become a
trade requirement, how resins are being
used in wood panel production should be
reassessed as well. How can companies
like CHIMAR, a resin technology developer,
help to tackle these challenges? Charles
Markessini, vice-president, R&D, introduces
CHIMAR to Yap Shi Quan.
formaldehyde (PF) resins. These resins are
used predominantly in the production of
particleboard, medium-density fibreboard
(MDF), oriented strand board (OSB), and
plywood panels. Lower volume applications are
paper impregnation and insulation materials
such as mineral and glass wool or fabrics.
CHIMAR brings long-standing expertise
on the subject and our team of 30 skilled
professionals works and interacts strongly
with every customer, striving to understand
the local market and processes, to reach the
beneficial targets, and always to achieve the
fruits of a joint effort.
What are your responsibilities as the
company’s vice-president of R&D?
Markessini: I am responsible for monitoring
all research projects being executed. My
personal favourite assignment is to scale up
new technologies, take good results from the
lab and implement the latter in the real world.
I also take part in the technical support of
customers on-site and try to inspire our team
to develop technologies the market will be
using in the next 20 years.
Lab synthesis of PF resin
Can you tell us more about CHIMAR?
Charles Markessini: CHIMAR is a company
active since 1977. It has expertise in over 100
industrial sites around the world. Its most
important function is to develop technologies
related to the production and application
of adhesives used in manufacturing woodbased
panels. The company specialises in
formulation development and the application
of formaldehyde-based resins. Our customers
use our technology to: increase their market
share, product portfolio and profit margin
in case they are active in the free — not
captive — resin market; to reduce production
cost, improve production speed, or reduce
formaldehyde emissions; as well as to improve
other product properties in case of integrated
resin and panel production.
It is important to note that we do not
produce or provide industrial binders but
rather the technology for their production
and application. Our technology addresses
all types of urea-formaldehyde (UF),
urea-melamine-formaldehyde (UmF),
melamine-urea-formaldehyde (MUF),
melamine-formaldehyde (MF) and phenol
Can you share how CHIMAR contributes to
producers’ Deming cycle with your solutions
and technical pre- and after-sales support?
Markessini: As our relationship with any
customer is always target-oriented, we fulfil,
and in some cases exceed, our obligations
by executing several improvement projects.
These are represented by the (Observe)-
Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle that is applied
sequentially several times until the technology
is fully launched and the results are obtained.
As discussed above, this is done in strong
cooperation with the local industrial team, a
practice that reinforces the initial technology
and enables its implementation efficiently.
So in practice, all our technology transfer and
technical support, including pre- and aftersales,
evolves around the execution of several
cycles till measurable targets are reached or
surpassed.
Can you tell us more about the lignin-based
resin developed with UPM 1 , as well as the NAF
binder developed with Ecosynthetix? 2
Markessini: Lignin-based adhesives are
mostly suitable for plywood, insulation and
high-pressure laminate (HPL) industries.
Their performance matches those of phenolic
38 PANELS & FURNITURE ASIA | JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2024