Ammonium nitrate based catalysts for the production of particleboards

Particleboard is an engineered wood product manufactured from wood particles, synthetic resin and other components. Catalyst is an important element in the particleboard production process. The purpose of using catalyst in the production of particleboards is simple: allow resin to cure in the hot press. Particleboard catalysts based on ammonium nitrate have been designed to increase production rates in both single- and multi-daylight presses. It should be mentioned that increase in production rate is not at the expense of board properties and can only be taken as an advantage if all the other parts of the line can sustain (flake preparation, drying, blending, forming, loading, pressing, unloading, trimming etc). If all other parts of the line can maintain, then production increase of up to 25% can be achieved. Ammonium nitrate based catalyst has been tested and compared with current catalysts at three European particleboard factories. The current work gives an overview of the new catalyst types, trials, results that have been achieved and makes further recommendations.