Norbord is now able to make improved quality chipboard suitable for use in the manufacture of decorative panel products, following the completion of a £25m investment programme at Cowie.
The final £7m phase of improvements included the replacement of the forming press taking just three weeks and minimising production downtime.
Karl Morris, managing director of Norbord Europe, told TTJ that the latest quality improvements were good news for the company’s core structural flooring customers, as well as potential new clients in the decorative panels market.
“The investment gives us the flexibility to access other markets. While flooring will remain our focus, this investment will allows us to produce a product with a better surface and a more homogeneous product for the worktop manufacturing market and access to MFC lamination customers,” he said.
He also said the improved quality combined with current exchange rates gave Norbord options for exporting product.
But Mr Morris stressed that the structural flooring market would remain the factory’s focus.
“It [the improvements] will allow us to maximise our capacity during fluctuations in the market.”
An article on the Cowie plant’s improvements will appear in a panel products focus in the next issue of TTJ.
