Kronospan is looking to purchase further technology designed to remove metal contamination from recycled wood fibre.
The panel producer has already spent nine months trialling a line at Chirk which constituted a £1m investment and involved technology designed for the gold-mining industry.
“With the downturn in the construction sector producing less wood for recycling, we’ve had to rely on increasing amounts of waste from civic amenities this year, and for this reason we have been trialling the new technology for the last nine months on one line,” said Iain Ferguson, environmental manager at Kronospan.
He said customers appreciated the company’s efforts to purify wood fibre – particularly those in the furniture sector.
The equipment, adapted for use by Kronospan, is used in the gold-mining industry to separate gold sediment from surrounding silt using a sensor and air jet system. At Kronospan, it is helping remove aluminium particles from landfill waste wood used in its products.
Removing metal is also important for health and safety, as metal left in the wood could potentially spark.
