MDF plant expands, yet again.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: Medium density fibreboard - Flakeboard Company

Queen's Park has topped up its contribution to Flakeboard Company's expansion at its Sault Ste. Marie medium density (MDF) fibreboard mill.

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The Markham-headquartered company has invested heavily in its Base Line Road facilities with a new melamine lamination mill and now has big plans to develop a patented dry resin application, a green energy project and more value-added manufacturing.

Flakeboard received a $1.6 million repayable loan in March from Ontario's Ministry of Economic Development and Trade from their Advanced Manufacturing Investment Strategy (AMIS).

The loan is tacked onto a previous $1.6 million grant given to Flakeboard last fall from the province's Forest Sector Prosperity Fund.

Operations manager Mike Rosso says the expansions are necessary for the Sault MDF mill to stay competitive, lower their material costs and offer a broader product line.

Last September, Flakeboard announced it was making $16.5 million in upgrades to the Sault plant in a series of projects, which including a system to generate energy by burning wood waste, along with much-needed upgrades to their press line to produce wood panels as thin as five millimetres for kitchen cabinets and other household wood products.

The line upgrades and other projects are expected to create 37 new jobs, both on the operational end and in long-term construction jobs on the site expected to last three years.

The dry resin system will require some new construction in 2008, with an extension onto Flakeboard's main MDF building, as will the wood waste burner which comes on stream in 2008-2009.

Rosso says the first phase of their thin board production begins in May with new equipment being installed to begin operations. More machinery will come later this year to better optimize the process.

"The challenge is having a press that's running and you have to install it on an opportunity basis."

The upgrades will also improve the press' out-feed, allowing them to run at higher speeds.

Their patented resin technology involves applying binding agent to wood product after drying. Rosso says the major benefit is reducing their resin consumption by 20 to 30 per cent, easily their biggest operating cost.

"To reduce that cost is a huge gain to us."

Applying resin to fibre after drying...