In June the Brazilian company Duratex signed a contract with Siempelkamp for the delivery of the world’s largest particleboard plant.

The contract includes the planning and engineering by Siempelkamp and bundles the Group’s core competences. The centerpiece of the forming and press line is a 9’ x 60.3 m ContiRoll® featuring press design 2 – the world’s longest press for a particleboard plant. With speeds of up to 1,150 mm/sec the daily board capacity will be 3,200 m³ amounting to a yearly capacity of over one (1) million m³ of boards. At a thickness ranging from 8 to 40 mm the board size will be 2,800 x 5,580 mm.

Also included in the scope of supply will be two Büttner dryers which together will dry approx. 100 t of particles per hour. The outstanding feature of this particleboard plant will be boards with particularly smooth surface layers. These boards are immediately ready for coating! A cooling and stacking line by SHS as part of the finishing line, a SHS sanding line, inline saw and packing line complete the order.

Duratex relies on Siempelkamp quality and has been a Siempelkamp customer for many years. Both companies have maintained a relationship since the 1950s. In the last 10 years alone the Brazilian manufacturer for wood-based products from Sao Paulo has ordered four (4) plants from Siempelkamp, one of them included what is currently the world’s longest Con-tiRoll® press. In May of 2007 Duratex signed the contract for the delivery of a 77 m long Con-tiRoll® for MDF. Now this high-capacity press is also in demand for particleboard production. In terms of the production parameters, this is Siempelkamp’s second world record in one year.

The new record plant will be installed in the Brazilian municipality of Itapetininga. Construction is scheduled to start in February 2010; the first board is forecast for September of 2010.