What is mdf made of

It cuts well, but it also produces more sawdust. Finally, while you can paint plywood, it also excels when stained. MDF takes coatings very well and can be sealed with a clear finish for protection. These are all small details, but depending on your project, they may help make your decision a little easier.

Both MDF and plywood are high-quality materials that are excellent for a number of different projects. The key is to understand where and how they each excel, and then use them in that capacity. For inspiration on how to use both products, click here to check out our project gallery. Plywood: Comparing Classic Materials.

MDF vs. What Is MDF? What Is Plywood? Uses of Plywood Like MDF, decorative hardwood plywood makes an excellent choice for cabinets and furniture. Contact Us. The resulting pieces are then cut to the correct size with an industrial saw while they are still warm. Fibres are processed as individual, but intact, fibres and vessels, manufactured through a dry process. The chips are then compacted into small plugs using a screw feeder, heated for 30— seconds to soften the lignin in the wood, then fed into a defibrator.

A typical defibrator comprises two counter-rotating discs with grooves in their faces. Chips are fed into the centre and are fed outwards between the discs by centrifugal force. The decreasing size of the grooves gradually separates the fibres, aided by the softened lignin between them.

This is an expanding circular pipeline, initially 40 mm in diameter, increasing to mm. Wax is injected in the first stage, which coats the fibres and is distributed evenly by the turbulent movement of the fibres. A urea-formaldehyde resin is then injected as the main bonding agent.

The wax improves moisture resistance and the resin initially helps reduce clumping. The material dries quickly in the final heated expansion chamber of the blowline and expands into a fine, fluffy and lightweight fibre. This fibre may be used immediately, or stored. The mat is pre-compressed and either sent straight to a continuous hot press or cut into large sheets for a multi-opening hot press.

The hot press activates the bonding resin and sets the strength and density profile. The pressing cycle operates in stages, with the mat thickness being first compressed to around 1. The chips will then be joined with wax and fed into a defibrillator to maintain a high pressure and temperature while the wood is ground into a pulp. The next step in our MDF timber process sees the product enter a blowline to be joined with resin.

It is then dried quickly as it enters the expansion chamber and starts to expand into a fine and lightweight fibre that is stored until it is required at the forming line.

This dry fibre is sucked into the top of a pendistor, which evenly distributes fibre into a mat below and is sent to a hot press to bond the resin and set the strength and density of the product.

Mass production of MDF only began in the s, but since then there have been significant strides made to make the product far more environmentally friendly. The use of non-toxic binders is now increasingly common and using raw materials like bamboo that are fast-growing and renewable has begun to take off, meaning production is having significantly less impact on the environment.

One of the unique traits of Medium Density Fibreboard is that it has no knots or rings, making it more reliable when it comes to cutting compared to natural woods. MDF is also an ideal product for veneering. The strength of MDF combined with the ease of veneering means that it has a quite an extensive range of applications it can be used for. MDF is kind of like that kid you knew at school who was somehow amazing at every single sport!

MDF really does have a laundry list of ways it can be used! However, Plyco offers a high moisture resistant variety of MDF! This option allows you to safely apply MDF anywhere that it may be exposed to water, like in kitchens, laundries or bathrooms. Last, but not least, we have our extensive range of Veneered MDF! Now that you know a little bit more about MDF and what the production of it looks like, why not move on over to our online store and check out our awesome range!?

You can buy a whole variety of MDF boards there. Alternatively, you can also check out some more posts in our Guide to MDF. Some of these questions we have addressed specifically through in-depth