OSB manufacturer Kronoply is the first company to achieve Q-Mark certification to BS EN 300 from BM TRADA Certification.
The award relates to production of OSB/3 from Kronoply’s factory at Heiligengrabe, Germany. Technical engineer Christoph Jost said Kronoply opted for Q-Mark because it covered the product in a range of applications.
He said: “The Q-Mark reflects the quality of our OSB and denotes that our production is to a consistently high standard.”
Another advantage, he said, is that the boards are produced on a continuous press, allowing the company to offer lengths up to 6.5m. “By using continuous presses we can steer the quality very precisely and create a special density profile with excellent strength properties.”
The company has been looking ahead to CE marking which will be mandatory across Europe by March 2004. BM TRADA‘s Q-Mark scheme for wood based panels takes BS EN 13986 as its starting point, although it goes beyond the standard in setting targets for manufacturers.
Dr Vic Kearley, who processed Kronoply’s Q-Mark application for BM TRADA, said: “Our Q-Mark scheme has been designed to pave the way for CE marking and could therefore make that route less painful for manufacturers when the time comes.”
