Money-saving cooling wheels
Customer: Daiken, Gore (New Zealand)
The Japanese Daiken Group operates four MDF plants, two in Malaysia and two in New Zealand, together manufacturing 650,000 m³ of MDF per year. At Daiken Southland Limited in Gore, New Zealand, MDF ranging from 2 to 40 mm in thickness and 350 to 880 kg/m³ in density is produced.
That’s how we helped Daiken get ahead
When the factory in Gore was designed, it was based on a 21-meter-long continuous press but at the last minute, the press design changed from 21 to 28 meters. The way the panels have to ‘travel’ after the press should have been 50% longer, which would have allowed a longer cooling time. Additionally, the factory increased speeds by 25% to 45% over nameplate rates. Daiken had to do something to improve cooling capacity. Otherwise, the ratio of reject boards at sanding would increase dramatically.
Two new cooling wheels ordered from Dieffenbacher solved the problem. Board temperature dropped from 60°C to less than 20°C at the stacking station. The board-cooling period in the storage has reduced from three days to zero days, enabling continuous sanding for thicknesses above 14 mm and earlier detection of board quality issues such as surface defects. As a result, the amount of reject boards caused by inefficient cooling was reduced by 90%. The new cooling wheels will save Daiken a lot of money in the long run.
