Focus on Italy: IMAL PAL Group | 27
Three belt dryers have been installed in
France plus the company has received a new order for two belt dryers from one of the largest groups in Europe. A big unit for Spain’s Tableros Hispanos is
now under erection, and further belt dryers from customers in Belgium and Ireland are under construction. IMAL PAL Group emphasises the belt dryer
technology has been modified and updated to allow the system to work to a low material output moisture content of just 1-2%. Another large project being worked on is in northern Italy and is focused on pallet blocks and pressed woodchip pallets. The project is worth over €35m and features similar technology as a particleboard plant and uses 100% PMDI resin to remove formaldehyde emissions. This project represents a major update of the announcement IMAL PAL Group made a year ago in WBPI’s Focus on Italy (‘IMAL brings new horizon to pallets’), when the company unveiled its technology for complete woodchip pressed pallets. It has a pilot plant at Modena but this project near Torino is the first commercial application of the technology. The customer is a big waste wood recycler. “The customer wants to make a valuable product to be sold on the market and make profit from the raw material,” said Mr Zanasi. “It will be a turnkey plant and we will see
delivery and installation in the autumn of 2022.
“It includes the energy plant, drying, wood preparation, screening, gluing, complete press line, packaging, handling and wrapping. It is a good project and a nice alternative to the traditional panels business and based on similar technology.”
IMAL has designed an innovative single opening press with mould including forming and gluing, to produce
pallets completely from woodchips. The pallets are a standard 1.2m x 0.8m size and made as one piece in a mould. The press uses steam to accelerate the process. In terms of strength, Imal believes the new pallet should be able to carry loads up to Europallet specification. IMAL PAL recognises that this innovation feeds into an important world trend – recovering and maximising the use of wood waste. It has focused great importance on this area, citing European targets to eliminate avoidable waste by 2050 and the circular economy concept. “We need to recover the huge amount
of waste wood in all countries. It should be forbidden for the entire world to put anything into the ground – whether it is wood, plastic or other materials. The circular economy for us is a huge point.” Meanwhile, another project that involves the supply of equipment to a new wood fibre insulation board plant in Sardinia is almost completed. IMAL PAL has plans to make a video promotion film of the plant when it is up and running. “We are now dealing with three customers for three separate factories for wood fibre insulation board,” added Mr Zanasi. “Two of these are outside Europe and are under current discussion.”
The pallet block plant business is going well, with the company reporting success with a French customer who installed a line recently and has now placed orders for two further lines.
Installation is finalising for the two additional lines. That gives IMAL PAL Group a total of six pallet block extrusion lines in France. Of course, the core business for IMAL is still supplying gluing and dosing systems for existing plants.
It recently received an order for five
complete gluing systems from Swiss Krono at different sites around the world. Its quality control (thickness, density and surface quality) equipment is also a mainstay, as is its wide range of laboratory equipment. And the DynaSteam mat pre-heating
system continues to grow its customer application reach globally. Today about 135 units are installed worldwide. The PAL wood preparation business,
covered extensively in WBPI in our ‘Making the most of Wood’ and ‘Recycling – a key for the future’ features in 2020 and 2021, continues to see high customer enquiries. Another major novelty is the new Strander
for OSB production designed by Globus, a company belonging to the IMAL PAL group, of which four units have been sold to date.
FUTURE INVESTMENT PROSPECTS The Group is optimistic about the future development of the global wood-based panels industry but also recognises that investment in specific countries may depend on the trajectory of the pandemic in those nations.
Mr Zanasi said many European countries had high Covid-19 vaccination rates, which he thought boded well for better business prospects there. But those with low vaccination rates he
thinks could struggle with positive business levels and investment. Looking further ahead, the group believes the next physical Ligna show in 2023 will be an important event for the wood-based industries.
And nearer to home, visitors to IMAL in Modena will now notice the completion of a recent extensive site improvement plan – a multi-million euro project to expand and update the facilities and offices, leading to a greater capacity and efficiency of working.
Above left: The woodschip pressed pallet business is going well Above right: The DynaSteam mat pre-heating system
www.wbpionline.com | October/November 2021 | WBPI
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