A circular economy in action: Siempelkamp’s recycling innovations for particleboard and MDF production
Consequently, recycling solutions for the wood-based panel industry will therefore be a topic central to Siempelkamp’s presentation. Maximum energy efficiency and cost-effectiveness with consistently high product quality are essential to the production of wood-based panels – and for Siempelkamp a reason to provide additional recycling support that stands out for its synthesis of all three requirements to customers. Siempelkamp is offering new recycling concepts for both particleboard and MDF production.
MDF recycling: Innovation for the wood-based panel industry
Visitors to the booth at LIGNA 2025 will gain insights into Siempelkamp's innovative MDF recycling concept. “This approach is completely new and represents a genuine innovation in our industry. Unlike the recycling process for particleboard production, this is not just about separating wood from other materials. Recycling in the MDF process focuses rather much more intensively on the production of fibres as well as cleaning,” says Moritz Schränkler, Development Engineer for Technology and Innovation at Siempelkamp, who is also responsible for recycling.
Siempelkamp’s new drying process aims to return fibre-based materials in any form, gluing and finishing – e.g. from flooring, kitchen fronts and back panels – to the process. Irrespective of how the original fibreboard made of MDF, thin MDF or HDF was processed: Siempelkamp’s recycling process breaks the material down into fibres and separates them from foreign materials and other impurities, such as paint, coatings and fittings. Besides the technical benefits that it delivers, the process also focuses on reducing energy consumption and helping the end products deliver outstanding performances and cost-effectiveness.
Last but not least: the process is environmentally friendly. The concept has been secured on the basis of extensive tests with all common types of input materials that have been carried out by at Siempelkamp’s R&D center and external institutes. “We see the fact that it’s also possible to use our process to recycle PMDI-glued boards as a unique selling point. It means that the name of 'Siempelkamp' stands for the fact that we’re genuinely able to process all common input materials that are permitted by the German Waste Wood Ordinance,” says Samiron Mondal, Managing Director of G. Siempelkamp GmbH & Co. KG.
Recycling for particleboard production: even more precise cutting
Siempelkamp had already presented a cleaning plant for particleboard production at the LIGNA trade fair in 2023. “We’re following on from the successful launch of the first generation by taking another step and tailoring our services even more precisely to our customers’ needs in 2025. We’ll be presenting a concept for particleboard recycling that consists of standardized modules at LIGNA 2025. These modules have been adapted to the respective recycling raw materials that our customers specifically use and ensure an individually designed sorting process,” says Ulrich Kaiser, Head of Sales Wood Division.
That means: Siempelkamp is offering the appropriate cleaning technology or machine for every foreign material and potential impurity that needs to be removed from the material flow before the pressing process. Such valuable foreign materials as metal, glass, plastic, paper and stones are sorted by type in order to obtain the purest possible grade of wood. It then is possible to reuse this wood in the particleboard industry while the foreign materials are directed towards their own recycling streams. All of which contributes to the realization of a sustainable circular economy. It’s also possible to simulate material flows and impurities for planning in advance.
Booth concept with recycling tower
Siempelkamp will be presenting its recycling concept and making it tangible at LIGNA 2025: The recycling tower that is being built at the booth is intended to symbolically represent a recycling plant. Augmented reality (AR) can then be used to tour and explore the plant in its entirety. Plants are going to be presented virtually with the help of AR glasses, while the products will be directly tangible. “We’re looking forward to this opportunity to share processes and ideas with visitors stopping off at our booth at LIGNA. Beyond LIGNA, we’ll be concentrating on working with our customers to close the cycles while keeping them alive within the wood-based panel industry,” says Samiron Mondal.
