New types of fibreboard

Not so long ago, a new material has appeared on the consumer market that combines the properties of wood and chipboard. These are fiberboards (MDF) of a special density. They are already in use in the furniture industry. This material can also be useful for a home master..

Fiberboard

This type of fibreboard is the result of efforts to overcome the negative properties of wood, which swells and dries out, bends and warps. As a result of counteracting this, we can consider the emergence of plywood, joinery and chipboards, that is, materials that behave more “peacefully “than wood. But they also have negative properties that must be taken into account..

In the new fiberboards, the starting material – wood – is not only cut, but literally “soaked” into individual fibers. Thus, after the cut wood pulp passes through the grinding discs, fibers with a thickness of only 0.1 mm appear. They are mixed with glue, then pressed and hardened at a high temperature. At the end, the surface of the boards is sanded or, in the case of their special application, a coating is applied to the surface imitating the texture of wood.

Special density fibreboards are produced in the same thickness as multilayer fibreboards, namely from 16 to 29 mm. Uncut slabs are 262, 366, 410 and 524 cm long and 183 to 207 cm wide.

If you look at the cut of the chipboard, you can see that the adhesion of the chips in the surface layer is quite tight. In the middle, the structure is very loose. Fiberboards, on the other hand, have a uniformly dense structure..

Uniformly dense structure throughout the entire thickness of the board: even a nail and screw inserted from the end is held tight

If a saw with a thin blade and fine teeth is guided in measured, unhurried movements, you get an even cut, which you just need to grind.

Cutting line for fibreboard (left) and chipboard (right)

Therefore, the visible sections of the cuts on the workpieces do not require additional labor-intensive processing. You can forget about the overlay, which you still have to try to correctly cut or arrange with a mill.

When varnishing fiber boards, neither surface nor edges need to be putty. Only reduce the suction capacity of the fibrous material with a suitable primer so that the varnish dries evenly.

Design advantages

The dense structure of fiberboard has certain design advantages: they hold nails and screws tightly, which cannot be said about particleboards.

Another very valuable property: fibreboards lend themselves to milling as well as solid wood. For example, the edges of the slabs can be profiled. And it will be a flawlessly smooth and crisp profile..

The profiled edge of the fibreboard is as smooth as the surface. It is recommended to use high quality drills, cutters and saws for processing such boards.