MDF Production Process
Forests
Alpine MDF products
are produced entirely
from radiata pine,
sourced from the Ovens and Murray regions.
Log Yard
Approximately 200,000
tonnes of pulp logs are
delivered to our site per
year, almost 20 trucks
per day.
De-bark Logs
Logs are unloaded from trucks to be processed at the chip mill. A rotary crane feeds logs into a
drum de-barker.
Chipping
Directly after de-barking the logs are fed through a disc chipper, creating
the chip that will
become fibre.
Refiner
The wood chips are
separated into individual cellulose fibres using a
disc refiner.
Pre-heating
The wood chips are
heated with steam to
soften them and make
it easier to turn into fibre.
Chip Wash
The chip is washed to remove sand, stone and other contaminants
that may affect the quality.
Chip Pile
The chip is stored in a
chip bin until it is
washed. Up to 2500
tonnes can be stored.
Wax and Resin Applied
After refining, resin and wax are added to the fibre in a steam blow line.
Dryer Cyclone
The dryer cyclone dries
the fibre after the resin
and wax have been
added.
Mat Forming and Pre-Press
The dried fibre is formed into mats. The fibre mats move through to the pre-press conveyor where they begin to be compressed before moving through to the continuous press.
Packed
The wide range of
Alpine MDF product is packed and distributed both domestically and
internationally.
Cut to Size
Sanded board moves to the Anthon cut to size
saw where it is cut to a large range of market and custom sizes.
Sanding and Grading
Alpine MDF is finished by a
Steinemann sander with eight sanding heads and two super finish polishing brushes.
Continuous Press
The fibre is pressed
together under heat
and pressure where
they become an actual board.