From production to customer. See how OSB boards are created in Kronospan

New technology in Kronospan

* Kronospan has been using recycled wood in production since 2006
* Now it can also produce OSB boards from recycled wood
* The goal is for the share of recycled material in production to be up to fifty percent
* The new technology cost Kronospan seventy million euros

In the case of new technology, it all starts with the arrival of the truck on the roof loaded with construction timber or broken pallets. It dumps it all on the conveyor. Recycling begins. The wood goes to the shredder, then it is automatically sorted into which will go into the boards and which will be the chipboard. The pile of wood had already passed through two magnets, where it had safely got rid of all the unwanted materials.

At the same time, the chipping machines work with large wreaths fitted with sharp knives. They last in production for about ten to twelve hours, then they have to grind. At first glance, knives do not look dangerous, but the reality is different. “I recommend not to touch, they are really sharp,” advises production manager Libor Kulha, who took on the role of guide and provides expert commentary.

The chips then travel to a dryer heated by grate biomass boilers. The drum, which is thirty-five meters long and seven meters in diameter, is said to have up to eight hundred degrees Celsius. There is also a huge dry electrostatic precipitator, which is under the chimney.

Cylindrical sorting is followed by sieve sorting. Then the chips go to the hall, where glue is applied to them. This is followed by a hall where, in addition to heat, steam haze is also noticeable. This is due to the optimal moisture content of the chips. The sixty-three-meter-long press here has a pressure of about 200 bar, the pressure in the tires is about a hundred times lower for comparison, it produces an endless plate, which the saw cuts to the required dimensions.

The plate that comes out of the press has a temperature of about two hundred degrees. Its cooling follows. Only then can he head to the warehouse. They are then used by customers to build houses, as a basis for insulation or interior design.

For the environment

The Jihlava plant started using recycled wood in the production of boards in 2006. In 2019, the amount of recycled material processed was four hundred thousand tons. Jihlava is the second plant in the world to use new technology. According to Petr Havelka, director of the Czech Waste Management Association, they are able to process all recycled wood produced in the Czech Republic in Jihlava.

This is what bothered the Jihlava municipality and the locals. “No one wants us to become a dump of old furniture for Central Europe. Saving a hundred cities and disposing of one is not the right procedure for me, “Vít Zeman, Deputy Mayor for the Environment, took three napkins three years ago.

Subsequently, negotiations began with the company’s management, and now Deputy Zeman no longer criticizes the lumber plant so loudly. Last autumn, he acknowledged that even though surface particle emissions were within legal limits, people were bothered and more needed to be done to improve the situation.

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