IKEA Swedwood Plant in Poland Adds Homag ReacTec
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The HOMAG Group’s innovative laminating technology reacTec
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The HOMAG Group’s revolutionary new reacTec laminating technology is already gaining a foothold: By the autumn of 2012, this innovative new technique was up and running in the Polish production facilities of the company’s Swedish client Swedwood, a key supplier to the furniture giant IKEA.

Development of the new reacTec laminating technology was prompted by the idea of transposing the benefits of hot melt gluing to a new technique without any of its inherent drawbacks. In close cooperation with partners Henkel and Nordson, the HOMAG Group worked to develop an economical laminating technique combining the benefits of the urea method with those of hot melt gluing. What emerged was an ideal combination of process stability with practically all positive technical characteristics. The method combines all the convenience of hot-melt glue with the strength and thermal resistance of urea. The products demonstrate optimum surface smoothness no matter how thin the coating material.

The reacTec method works by reactivating a new type of glue applied to the coating material using heat and pressure to laminate surfaces and/or edges. The result: products with a top quality appearance and an optimum cost-to-performance ratio.

Other benefits:

• Temperature resistance similar to urea

• No ingress of moisture, elimination of chipboard swelling

• Glue joint free of formaldehyde and emissions

• Mechanical loading capacity, eliminating the surface indentations experienced with hot-melt glue

• Glue joint hardness similar to urea

• Reliable, easy-to-operate adhesive application using closed nozzle application system

• Energy and resource efficiency through high technical availability and low use of energy

• Low cleaning and maintenance requirement compared to urea

• Insensitive to changing process parameters such as feed rate

• Minimal space requirement due to more compact plant design compared to urea

Depending on individual customer requirements, reacTec comes in two process types. Anyone wishing to apply glue, laminate and wrap in a single plant is best served using the inline process. The offline process coats and laminates separately, permitting production in different locations. Surface and edge lamination are performed by the completeLine with reacTec. These plants will size the raw panels, coat the surface and at the same time seal the narrow surface on the longitudinal side. This allows the material being laminated to be wrapped with foil or paper in a single continuous process.

By opting for reacTec, Swedwood will benefit from an innovative process solution with the potential to become the most economical laminating method of the future.

Source: HOMAG Group

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