Pulp it up: Drumod's pulp sold to Leitrim success story Masonite

Clean wood chip being delivered to Masonite Ireland. This wood chip is used in the manufacture of moulded door skins. Masonite Ireland.

November 09 2015 07:42 PM

On the visit to Drumod Beg Wood, we heard that some of last year's pulp harvested during the second thinning was sold to the Masonite Ireland facility near Drumsna, Co Leitrim.

As you may have read in last week's Farming Independent, Masonite Ireland processes wood waste and residue to manufacture moulded door skins, a component part of interior-moulded doors.

The plant has a site area of over 60 hectares with a production facility of six hectares under one roof. Production started in 1997 and employs about 130 employees.

The plant has a maximum annual capacity of 250,000m3. An additional 35,000m3 of wood chip fuel are required annually supplying energy to the plant.

Masonite requires very clean spruce wood chips for the production of door skins. Some pine can also be used but larch cannot. Logs need to be between 2 and 3.5 metres in length with a minimum diameter of 7cm.

Wood fuel chips have a lower spec. Acceptable material can include material such as timber, pallet wood, sawmill residue and fencing post residues.

To manufacture door skins, first the wood chips are broken down to very fine fluffy wood fibres. It looks a bit like cotton wool. These wood fibres are then steamed and moulded into MDF door skins and are made up of wood fibre, resin, wax and paint. Water and energy are used in the manufacturing process of the door skins.

The plant has three production lines: two pressing lines and a line that will cut and paint the final door skins white. Nearly the total production of door skins is exported to over 30 countries in Europe, Middle East and North Africa.