Characterisation of novel wood products
Engineered timber
Medite Smartply is a market-leading manufacturer of innovative medium density fibreboard (MDF) and oriented strand board (OSB) panels. Combining the very latest technologies, sustainable raw materials sourced from their own forests and customer-led innovation allows the company to produce products of the highest quality, defining the standards of engineered timber panels.
New products
Medite Smartply’s manufacturing sites in Clonmel (Medite) and Waterford (Smartply) in Ireland feature the latest production technology to deliver quality products and customer service unparalleled within the industry. Continuous development and investment over the past 30 years have enabled the business to enter new diverse markets and sectors, ensuring that there is always a fresh pipeline of new products to address market demands.
1
direct-funded project
2
manufacturing sites
7
years in partnership
“PMBRC provide skills and expert knowledge essential for Medite Smartply to deliver our growth strategy through “Value Add” based product and service approach. Key to this strategy is the development of innovative new product solutions through scientific-led research where PMBRC are a key collaborator. It is very important that we have the expertise and facilities of PMBRC on our doorstep in the South East as this accelerates our rate of innovation.”
Dr Rory Rice
Technical Development Specialist, Medite Smartply
The Medite Smartply & PMBRC partnership
Medite Smartply believes that the next generation of wood panel products will be determined by scientific-led research and enabling technologies. The PMBRC has been an important R&D partner since 2012, providing technical support to the product development process with an increasingly important role in their development of ‘intelligent engineered wood panels’.
In particular, the PMBRC’s enthusiasm and expertise combined with a wide range of analytical equipment such as DSC, TGA, DVS, HPLC-MS, and GC-MS have been used to solve complex problems and characterise new prototype products. The equipment and expertise of the Gateway are not available to Medite Smartply in-house. By partnering with the PMBRC, the company has been able to develop new solutions and products and get them to market quicker than would have been possible otherwise. This in turns helps the company maintain its market-leading position.