SPF uses mostly rubberwood as a raw material, which is challenging because latex remaining in the wood can affect the quality of the board, especially the board surface. Z-Sifters from Dieffenbacher help the company to reliably remove the latex from the wood fibers. By replacing the old sifters in the first MDF line with a Z-Sifter, SPF not only reached its goal to improve board quality, but also was able to tremendously reduce the specific energy consumption.
In 2019, SPF decided to replace the sifter in its second line with a Z-Sifter from Dieffenbacher, too. The investment quickly demonstrated its value. Energy consumption in the sifter area went down by 50%, saving 8,000 kWh daily. The amount of reject fibers decreased by almost 75%, and board quality improved so much that the share of boards that don’t need manual inspection increased from 60% to over 80%.