MDF panels have been a building solution for decades now. We look forward to seeing even more projects and designs come to life by using this strong, high-utility wood product.
Check out some of our favorite projects here to inspire your next design. A Happy Accident and A Sustainable Solution In , William Mason, an inventor and friend of Thomas Edison, made it his mission to find a use for the huge amount of leftover wood chips and shavings that lumber mills discarded. This results in sheets of thin, strong wood. There are a few things to remember when designing or working with MDF: Experiment with it! Wear your gear. Use the right tools. Urea formaldehyde can cause irritation to the eyes and lungs.
MDF has a typical density of kg per cubic metre, in contrast to particle board kg per cubic metre and high density fibreboard kg per cubic metre. For applications where weight is a prime consideration, lower-density board is used — which usually means particle board, also known as chipboard, or plywood. Softwood logs that have been stripped of their bark are passed through a chipper machine that chops the wood into small pieces. Sawdust and recycled chips may also be added.
Some manufacturers add other materials, including expired telephone directories, old newspapers and recycled cardboard cups. The material is then fed into a defribrating machine, which breaks down the wood into its most basic and smallest parts, known as pulp.
The pulp is passed to a conveyor belt and sprayed with wax and resin glue. The wax makes the material more water-resistant and the resin binds it together. The pulp is formed into a thick mat in a machine called a pendistor, exiting at a consistent thickness onto another conveyor. After being rough-cut, the panels are fed into a press where a high temperature and extreme pressure compress the panels to the final desired thickness.
After cooling, the MDF panels are cut to final finish sizes and both faces are passed through a large sanding machine to complete the process.
The most common binder for boards intended for dry environments is urea-formaldehyde. Other binders may be used depending on the grade of board and its intended end-use. For example, melamine urea-formaldehyde, phenolic resins and polymeric diphenylmethane diisocyanate PMDI are generally used in boards that require an improved moisture resistance.
The most common, and cheapest, is standard interior grade material, suitable for most internal applications where moisture is not a consideration. MDF comes in large sheets, typically 4ft X 8ft mm X mm , although some can be as long as 10ft mm.
MDF at any thickness is easy to machine and provides an ideal painting surface. There are also European standards for MDF and the adhesives used to make them — manufacturers who prove that they comply with these standards can use the CE mark on their products.
You might also want to check that the wood content of any MDF you buy comes from sustainable sources. It is used where extra hardness is needed, for instance as the core material for laminate flooring.
Particle board, also known as chipboard, is made in a similar way to MDF but the wood component is in the form of small particles rather than fibres. At similar thicknesses, particle board is not nearly as strong as MDF, although it serves well for the construction of kitchen carcases and worktops when covered with moisture-proof vinyl. Standard MDF and particle board are prone to swelling across their thickness when they get wet, so should not be used in applications where there is a risk of water contact unless they are melamine or vinyl coated, or the MDF is the moisture-resistant type.
It is better for construction work where strength is needed, but is more expensive than the other boards. Versatile — useful in construction, interior design and craft work, and excellent for veneering to make furniture. MDF contains urea-formaldehyde which can cause irritation to eyes and lungs — care needs to be taken when cutting and sanding. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.
It is thought that the high value of the product should compensate for the work required to convert the MDF, thus this route could be economically and environmentally sustainable. The economics of the process can only be finalised once the extraction process is optimised, but we believe that there is a real possibility of converting waste MDF to organic gold. Progressive Media International Limited.
Copyright Progressive Media International Limited. All rights reserved. Jump to page content Accessibility. Latest Features Features Archive. A new use for old MDF 14 May MDF has been manufactured commercially since the s and is a great commercial success.
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