Particle Boards are a relatively new type of engineered wood product.It is cheaper, denser and more uniform than conventional wood and plywood. The main advantage of particle board over solid wood or plywood is that its cost is very low. Compared to plywood furniture of similar dimensions, particle board furniture costs less than half.
Particle boards are machine manufactured to desired dimensions, and thus standard pieces of furniture can be mass-produced using these boards. This further brings down the costs since there is no carpenter work involved. This also means ready-to-buy products for customers with zero waiting time.
Particle boards are very light in weight, and hence furniture made from these boards is relatively easy to transport and move around.
However, particleboard can be made more attractive by painting or the use of wood veneers onto surfaces that will be visible.
The resin bonded fibre and particle board industry is of recent origin in India. A number of project proposals have been approved for setting up particle board and MDF board units. The additional approved capacity for particle board is 282,500 TPA and for MDF is 350,000 TPA. There are no proposals for setting up additional hard board and insulation board manufacturing units. The production of hard board and insulation board has been stagnant during the period 1975 to 1990. Particle board registered a growth of 51.5% whereas production of MDF increased by 128% in the same period.
Particle board manufacturing technology based on wood and wood wastes is well absorbed in the country. Most of the existing plants have developed the necessary expertise to utilise conventional wood species for production of particle board. However, major items of plant and machinery are being imported for plants of capacities higher than 20 TPD. Indigenisation to the extent of 20-25% has been achieved for the latest plants being set up. So far the sporadic individual efforts by the industry have been inadequate to create sufficient demand growth. As a whole it is a good project for new entrepreneurs to invest.
Few Indian Major Players are as under
• Archidply Industries Ltd.
• Associate Decor Ltd.
• Bajaj Eco-Tec Products Ltd.
• Bajaj Hindusthan Sugar Ltd.
• DarshanBoardlam Ltd.
• Ecoboard Industries Ltd.
• Genus Paper Products Ltd.
• Jolly Board Ltd.
• Kitply Industries Ltd.
• Madras Chipboard Ltd.
• Novopan Industries Ltd.
• Nuboard Manufacturing Co. Ltd.
• Oriental Veneer Products Ltd.
• Rushil Decor Ltd.
• Shirdi Industries Ltd.
• Western India Plywoods Ltd.