Novel adaptive technology to process recycled wood for particleboard

Nowadays, particleboards are produced with up to 100% recycled wood. The processing of recycled wood for particleboard is primarily carried out using hammermills. However, this technique is not optimal for all recycled wood assortments, often resulting in unusable particles such as dust. To efficiently process both recycled and fresh wood in particleboard production, an adaptive cutting mill was developed that combines cutting and beating to improve particle quality and yield. Compared with a conventional hammermill, it produces a more consistent particle size distribution, produces fewer oversize particles and achieves a higher proportion of usable core layer material. The concept of the adaptive cutting mill has high potential to process recycled wood for particleboard manufacturing efficiently.