TABLOPAN DE VENEZUELA – AN OPPORTUNITY TO MANUFACTURE PARTICLEBOARD FROM SUGARCANE BAGASSE OR WOOD

Some two years ago, Tablopan de Venezuela, which had been successfully producing particleboard from bagasse for nearly 40 years, was obliged to shut down due to bagasse becoming unavailable in the future. In view of these circumstances, the machinery and technology of Tablopan has become available to other sugar mills. Below is a brief description of the equipment which Tablopan is offering for sale to interested parties and its location.

Tablopan’s plant is located on the highway leading from La Encrucijada to San Mateo, in the state of Aragua, Venezuela. It is adjacent to a large sugar mill, Central El Palmar, from which it obtained its bagasse in the past. Central El Palmar is now burning all its bagasse to generate electricity and steam for its operations.

a) Fiber preparation area: originally included depithers, pin feeders, dryers, rotary screens, multicyclones, conveyors, perforated drums for pith removal, baling machines, and bale breakers. This equipment has been dismantled and some of it sold or disposed of, but the layout of the fiber preparation plant can be explained. Fiber preparation is an essential first step in the process of making good bagasse particleboard.

b) Main plant board production area: The equipment described here is suitable for producing particleboard both from sugarcane bagasse or wood. The equipment in this area is still in place, and includes a Heil 105 rotary drum dryer, Sprout Waldron atmospheric refiners and Pallmann hammer mills for achieving optimum particle geometry, Drais type resin blenders, Schenk three layer forming machine, mat trim saws, Dieffenbacher platen prepress, mat conveyors, mat elevators to a loader feeding a Dieffenbacher four opening 8' x 24' platen hot press manufactured in 1990, star cooler and Schwabedissen cut up saw. The nominal capacity of this production line is 350 m3 of particleboard per day.

c) Finishing area: this line consists of a Burelbach sander feeder, a Kimwood Panel Master sander with six heads, a Trienco blow detector, and a Burelbach three bin sorter stacker.

d) Resin plant: this plant is an integral part of the Tablopan production line, whereby UFC 85 (urea formaldehyde concentrate) can be transformed into UF (urea formaldehyde) or UMF (urea-melamine formaldehyde) resins, at considerable savings in resin costs, also allowing adjustment of the resin characteristics to those of the raw material. Included is a 6000 gallon reactor, a 6000 gallon mixing tank, pumps, cooling towers, UFC storage tanks, rupture valves and other equipment required for the chemical reaction. The process is one developed in conjunction with Georgia Pacific Resins.

e) Laminating line: this laminating line incorporates advanced technology for applying light weight decorative papers or vinyl to particleboard, thus upgrading the raw board for use in the furniture industry. The speed of the line is approximately 80 feet per minute, and the system includes brush cleaning machines, roll coaters, infrared heaters, heavy duty ceramic laminating rolls, and auxiliary hydraulic and other equipment for board handling. This line was designed and manufactured in conjunction with Dubois Machinery Company of Jasper, Indiana.

All the equipment listed is in good operating condition, and a video of the main plant in operation can be supplied to interested parties, together with a CD of the principal machinery in the main plant and the resin plant.

For further details, contact: Warren Smith, email wawismi@cantv.net; or Carlos Larrazabal, email clarrazabal@corpalmar.com