1

Roundwood logs are brought in by lorry from surrounding forests e.g. Kielder Forest, unloaded and stacked ready for the chipping process

2

Egger bring in recycled wood from a sister company in Leeds and also from local wood recycling companies (associated with Newcastle, Gateshead and Durham Councils).

3

One of the most useful raw materials for making chipboard is sawdust from local sawmills.

4

The roundwood logs are fed into a machine to remove bark and any grit/sand stuck to it.

5

Logs are fed into the flaker machine and are shaved or cut to make wood flakes, chips and shavings.

6

The recycled wood is fed into a machine known as a Grizzly Mill, which smashes the wood into woodchips with revolving metal hammers and discards all other waste products.

7

Woodchips are passed up a conveyor and the metal, plastics and rags removed from the woodchips.

8

The crushed wood is deposited in storage bays ready to be used for further processing into chipboard.

9

One of the waste products is scrap metal which is pulled from the crushed wood by a powerful magnet and spat out into a skip and the metal is sold and recycled.

10

Woodchips from the recycled timber and logs are dried in a big drum by hot air produced from burning the very fine waste wood dust.

11

Birds eye view into the burning chamber which creates the heat to dry the wood chips.

12

At a cost of £3 million, Egger has built a WESP (Wet Electrostatic Precipitator) which removes the pollutants and dust from the wood drying process

13

The wood chips are now mixed with glue and wax. The glue is used to bond the chips together and the wax makes the chipboard water resistant.

14

The woodchips are now ready for pressing and are fed into a forming station and then onto a conveyor belt called a forming line.

15

One of the production lines at Hexham is 52 metres the longest of its kind in the world.

16

From the forming line the chipboard moves to a pressing plant where the moisture is driven off and board is pressed at high temperature and pressure in the main press.

17

The edges of the board are trimmed and the board cut into panels typically 5610mm x 2070mm before being cooled, sanded and packed for storage in the warehouse.

18

Nothing is wasted! All reject chipboard is broken up and fed back into the manufacturing process.

19

The chipboard can be cut to the customers specific size requirements by a £1 million Schelling Saw.

20

Many decorative finishes can be applied to the furniture grade chipboard.

21

The quality of the woodchips, glue and finished chipboard products are tested in Egger's modern laboratories. The laboratory itself is made from Egger chipboard.