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Above left: The Morag plywood factory Above right: Paged LabTech R&D centre at Pisz
But first just a quick reminder on the company. Paged Plywood operates five plywood production facilities across Poland and Estonia, with a group production capacity of approximately 220,000m3
. Products are sold on nearly 80 world
markets, with industrial customer sectors including construction, transport, interior design, furnishings, and packaging. Birch, pine, alder, beech and aspen are among species used, with many product variations including overlays and thin-veneer ply. Face veneering takes place in house using species such as oak, walnut, maple and ash.
NEW PRODUCT RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT Paged’s LabTech R&D centre, a subsidiary company of Paged Plywood and established in 2019, is the hub that researches and tests new products.
Ewelina Depczyska, CEO at Paged
LabTech, explained that plywood’s most important parameters were mechanical – as it was typically used in the construction and transport industries, with truck floors being a prime application due to the material’s light weight and good mechanical properties. The starting point for developing a new product was the transport industry, as customers are interested in how stronger and lighter products can save money and fuel, while also adding to their low carbon profile. “It was really challenging developing the new product,” explained Ms Depczyska. “We knew at the beginning it would not be easy because conventional plywood is a very well known material with high mechanical properties. Many people were sceptical if it was even possible [to get improvements] and that if we managed a 5-10% benefit it would be a success.”
The process started five years ago in partnership with the Warsaw University of Applied Sciences (material engineering department).
“We made a lot of simulations with value compositions even before any lab tests. At the beginning we focused on the fibres. We looked at other wood species, various adhesives and additives, and incorporating different components inside – including non- wood components.”
After much research, the team focused on natural rock fibres as a component to plywood. Important questions included how fibres should be orientated and what kind of additives to use because a good adhesion with wood was necessary and for stability reasons. Testing involved multiple small and then bigger samples of the hardwood veneer/rock fibre combinations. “We had to be sure of good mechanical properties and needed to have some statistics,” said Ms Depczyska. “When we make standard plywood, you don’t test mechanical properties from just one or two panels for one test, but you need 40 or more samples due to the fact that wood is a natural material, and you have some natural differences between results.” The long testing process resulted in Declaration of Performance (DoP) with detailed statistics.
ROCKPLY BENEFITS
The research team saw highly improved mechanical properties of the new product, compared to standard plywood. “The product is twice as strong as conventional plywood,” added Ms Depczyska. “So, you can decrease the thickness of the plywood. If you currently use 30mm plywood, you could use 15mm thick with this product. “Of course, this will also depend on the application and the customer’s specific design requirements.”
The strength claims relate to the all- important bending strength properties. “We have smaller tolerances compared with standard plywood, and the mechanical performance is more similar from product
to product. In standard plywood we have different values due to the wood (natural material). Of course, plywood is much better than wood, but still is made from wood as a main material. With this product we have almost the same results in both directions.” Paged believes it is the only plywood manufacturer with such a product material combination, with its patent specifically covering the incorporation of rock fibre in the plywood. Marek Paszyski, Paged UK and Ireland sales manager, said RockPly would be attractive to any industries that would benefit from a lighter product.
“Road transport is the obvious one, but also shipping container floors – the product can reduce the overall weight of the container for the shipping industry,” he explained.
He said the events industry would also see benefits – the lightness and reduced material thickness could reduce transportation costs, and ease, speed and safety of handling. “It’s not just about the plywood industry itself, but it’s beyond,” said Magdalena Kiciska, Paged Plywood communications manager.
“With this product we can easily become a competitor to other solutions – other [non- wood] raw materials.
“The first target is talking to our current customers, and also with distributors in Europe who have contact with multiple types of industries.” Mr Paszyski said the company would have detailed discussions on RockPly with its partners in the UK and Europe. “It is too early to say that markets are taking orders because we have to identify users and present the benefits of the material first. It’s a process. You can reduce the thickness of the panel with this product, which means some application designs will need to be amended.” ►
www.ttjonline.com | May/June 2025 | TTJ
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