User:Woodforce Technology/sandbox
 | |
| Industry | Manufacturing |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2002 |
| Headquarters | France |
Key people | Christophe Chambonnet, Xavier Le Fur, Raymond Loch (co-CEO), |
| Products | Engineered wood |
Number of employees | 300 (end 2010)[1] |
| Parent | Sonae |
| Website | www.woodforce.com |
Woodforce, manufactured by Sonae Industria, is an Engineered Wood fibre used in biocomposites Biocomposite. The product itself is designed to be a safer, natural alternative to Glass_fibre and a stronger option to the unpredictable and seasonally dependent agricultural fibre.
In allegiance with Scion, Scion this new-patented technology promotes weight and cost savings with design opportunities currently unavailable in the Natural_fibre sector. Improving the targeted properties of plastic resin, Woodforce is scientifically proven to deliver superior mechanical properties, such as greater tensile strength and consistent properties for easy dosing.
Most significant was the tensile strength improvement, which at 40% wood fibre loading was 82% higher than the base polymer.
The “ready-to-use”, long wood fibre pellets are capable of producing reinforced thermoplastic parts by Injection_moulding, extrusion extrusion blow-moulding and Thermoforming. Woodforce’s homogenous consistent quality and controllable moisture content make the diced pellets an attractive proposition for either extruders or injection moulders.
The plastics Plastic most researched with Woodforce to date, are polypropylene (PP), polyethelene (PE) and polylactic acid (PLA), respectively.
To achieve blending and reinforcement in the above examples, the wood fibre was compound extruded Plastics_extrusion using a co-rotating twin screw extruder followed by injection moulding of the resulting pellets. Ensuring compatibility between the fibre and Extracellular_matrix was achieved through addition of coupling agents into the compound extruder.
Production Process[edit]
The process of how Woodforce is made is similar to that of Medium Density Fibreboard (MDF) Medium Density Fibreboard (MDF) , as it is well suited for the addition of various polymers onto fibre within the blowline. As wood chips are screened and washed a magnet passes over to detect impurities. Using a pressurised disk refiner in much the same way as the MDF production process, the Defibrator consists of two counter-rotating plates and contains radial grooves Defibrator that get smaller as they get closer to the circumference.
The high temperatures lower the energy required to defibrate wood, as the softening of lignin facilitates fibre separation along the Middle_lamella.
Following this, the steam is then separated from the pulp after approximately one minute in the defibrator. The result is a clean, fine pulp that is light in colour, with the wood fibre walls remaining intact.
Taking its characteristics from wood cells rather than particles, Woodforce is dynamic and wood-based, and fully capable of acting as a mechanical reinforcer for thermoplastic polymers.
This approach to utilising wood fibres also has the following advantages:
- Existing capital (MDF plant) can be used and little additional investment is required to produce wood fibre dice for plastics processors.
- Dangers of Wood_dust and low moisture content fibres is mitigated.
- The dice can be readily packaged, transported and will flow through hoppers and feed systems. Hence they can be used in existing plastics processing infrastructure.
Woodforce is the commercial uptake of this technology for the automotive, consumer and packaging industries.
Production Location[edit]
The Le Creusot plant in France, which is ISO 9001 certified, has been chosen to be the first production site for Woodforce. It has 2.2 million square feet of land, a 214,000 square foot production plant and 120 on-site employees. In 2012 its production capacity stands at 100,000 tonnes per year.