Heraeus: Reducing rejects through preheating

Many decorative surfaces in kitchens, bathrooms, shops and restaurants are made of laminated wood materials. A British manufacturer improved the performance and profitability of its laminating station for panels and worktops by installing an infrared system.

At Carella Laminate Systems from Great Britain, chipboard or MDF panels are manually fed into a PUR hot melt gluing station. There, the adhesive is first applied evenly to the surface of the boards. Since infrared heat dries much faster than the conventional hot-air method and since the adhesion of the glue can be strengthened through targeted preheating with infrared technology, an infrared system from Heraeus Noblelight was installed. It quickly became apparent that the infrared systems make a decisive contribution to process reliability in the processing of wood and wood-based materials, among other things by preheating during lamination and in the drying of adhesives.