Rapid Growth, Expanding Markets Mark Particleboard

ARTICLEBOARD IS A mixture of dried wood flakes, chips, slivers and splinters with resins and wax, moulded under heat and pressure into solid panels now used extensively in home construction and furniture.

This year, reports the U.S. Department of Commerce, particleboard shipments will reach $5I million, up 12 percent over 1963 shipments.

Particleboard is a freshman in the forest products industry, yet its growth has been rapid, almost sensational, because of its economy, ease of installation, dimensional stability, smooth surface, strength and machineability.

It is even more interesting to foresters from the standpoint of turning waste wood into a valuable product. Scraps from which particleboard may be made, until a few years ago, virtually were useless. Now it can be said that this waste wood is helping feed a growing new industry and without drawing more on the growing forest resource.

American Forest Products Industries, sponsor of the American Tree Farm System of growing trees as a crop on private lands, says that whereas only 30 percent of a harvested tree was used 30 years ago, today 80 per cent of the tree is used.

The particleboard industry today is com' posed of 57 plants-'seven in the Northeast and [,ake States, 32 in the South and l8 in the West. Major portion of the present production capacity is located in the West, followed by the South, the North Central Region and the Northeast. Production capacity, now rated aI 670 million square feet (a/a inch basis) will increase considerably this year with the addition of four new plants,

fiIANY USES

Particleboard panels of uniform density range betwoen ys inch and I3/e inch in thickness, with 3/+ inch ,being the most common. Standard size panels are four or five feet wide and up to 20 feet long. The panels may be overlaid with plastic films, coatings or wood veneer. They may be cut to size or machined to patterns. Particleboard may be grain printed, die embossed or treated with insect repellants and fire retardants. It may be sawed, routed, shaped, drilled and fastened with nails, screws or glue in much the same manner as any wood panel.

The furniture and laminating industries are large-volume users of particleboard as cores for flat surfaces which ai'e overlaid with wood veneer or high-pressure plastic laminates. Types of products in which particleboard is so used include wood case goods furniture (chest of drawers, ibedroom bureaus, etc.) cabinetg desks, occasional furniture, kitchen counters, and store fixtures and displays.

Although use as core materials still accounts for the largest volume, use as floor underlayment has registered notable recent growth. The latter usage rose from I05 million square feet or 26 perc'ent of total particleboard output in 1962 to an estimated I40 million square feet or 30 per:cent in 1963, and is expected to reach 165 million square feet or 32 percent of total output in 1964. The substantial increase in production for this end use indicates a rapid penetration of the floor underlayment market, primarily in construction of new singlefamily dwellings, says the Department of Commerce,