When Paged Plywood embarked on an R&D exercise to increase plywood’s performance, there was some scepticism about what could be achieved.
But a five-year development process involving painstaking research and testing has yielded a patented new innovation, which the company proudly launched at the BAU exhibition in Germany during January 2025.
For Poland-based Paged, which employs 1,700 people, the launch was a significant moment, and it sees the new RockPly – a plywood product combining hardwood veneers with rock fibres – as potentially having a very large market.
The headline claim is that RockPly has approximately twice the bending strength of comparable conventional birch plywood, which is regarded as the currently strongest plywood in the market.
TTJ met with the Paged research and management team to look into how the product was developed, its applications and potential.
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 Depczyńska, 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 Depczyńska.
“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 nonwood 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 Depczyńska.
“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 Depczyńska. “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 Paszyński, 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 Kicińska, Paged Plywood communications manager.
“With this product we can easily become a competitor to other solutions – other [nonwood] 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 Paszyński 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.”
Paged believes the Europe-wide road transport industry could make RockPly a very big sales item in the company’s product portfolio and create a new standard for the sector. Specifically, flooring beds for heavy goods vehicles are a target.
“We’re not talking just about diesel vehicles but the new emerging market of electric vehicles. The weight for electric trucks is very important, as they’re already heavy because of the batteries, so any saving on the weight will be a benefit.”
Mr Paszyński said simulations on a curtain side vehicle where 30mm ply is typically used reveal that 18mm RockPly can be used instead, with quite significant benefits.
“It shows a 250kg weight reduction on a single trailer, that allows you to have an increased goods payload for the trailer.
“We did a simulation covering a five-year period. We took on average how many miles the truck will do in five years, the cost of the transportation per one tonne and what an 250kg extra payload can give the fleet operator as extra income.
“The extra revenue from the increased payload is about £7,000 over five years. But not every truck is loaded to its maximum so then you have a saving on fuel. Over five years, the fleet operator can save up to £4,000 on fuel and save nearly 8,000kg of CO2 emissions.”
“If we scale this up to some big fleet operators that run hundreds of trucks, there are significant benefits. So, although the initial product price is more expensive, the return on investment is quite quick – from six months to a year.”
On the sustainability front, Paged states that RockPly further reduces CO2 emissions by approximately 50 to 75kg per trailer annually. Thinner panels require less wood.
“Our simulation for an HGV trailer fitted with 18mm RockPly, instead of the standard 30mm birch plywood, shows that we can save two to three mature birch trees per trailer. These trees will continue to absorb CO2. For a fleet of 100 trailers, this equates to saving 200 to 300 trees.”
RockPly’s higher price point is understandable due its specialist nature, which includes additional manufacturing steps. But Paged is promoting it as an investment, saying the benefits ultimately create savings, efficiencies, and environmental advantages for customers.
RockPly has also been tested to meet a Class Bfl-s1 fire resistance, which may give additional benefits for some applications, though Paged already has long experience offering fire retardant products.
PRODUCTION
With RockPly being such a new product and being technically very different to standard plywood products, Paged is understandably keen to protect its IP. So, TTJ can’t currently cover in detail the manufacturing process of RockPly.
“This is our secret,” explained Ms Depczyńska. “It’s not like ordinary plywood production, so we had to make some changes to manufacturing and add some extra steps and make some changes in machinery.
“It is impossible to use a standard manufacturing process. It involves other chemistry. The end of the process is similar though – we need pressure, temperature and time to make the product.”
New equipment was installed and also significant training time for production line employees to learn about the new process.
Paged has produced some initial volumes as samples for the market. Future plans include creating a separate production line for RockPly.
“We still do not know all the potential applications of this product,” added Ms Kicińska. “We are even asking customers to come up with some ideas. Transportation and construction are the naturals, but there are others as well, such as the defence industry.”
FUTURE
The extensive R&D work and new products being launched are certainly some of the reasons for the company’s growth projections.
Paged LabTech’s new R&D centre opened in Pisz in the summer of 2023, featuring additional staff and equipment, enabling the company to carry out tests on wood, composites and wood-based panels for customers, and to carry out complete product certification.
Identifying new innovative composite board products is a big target.
RockPly isn’t the only new product being developed. In 2024, the Paged DryGuard FR panel was launched, combining advanced fire and moisture protection.
The product has a B-s1, d0 (EN 13501-1) fire classification and a hydrophobic coating to reduce rainwater absorption during construction of roofs, walls and floors.
“We believe we have the most advanced R&D department among the plywood manufacturers in Europe, but maybe also on a world scale – this is what drives this innovation and creation,” said Mr Paszyński.
“When I look at the agenda on new products being developed it is very impressive and most of them are in the low carbon and climate friendly category,” added Ms Kicińska. “In a couple of months, we will come back to the market with novelties again, which will be super interesting.”
