Arauco’s Particle Board & Lamination Facility in Michigan
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BTOD proudly uses particle board from Arauco on the work surfaces of the VertDesk v3. Working together with K&A Mfg., Arauco particle board is shipped in and customized to fit each individual desk.
The boards are cut into specific shapes and equipped with starter screw holes for the height-adjustable base. This is a first-look tour of the facility that supplies the raw material. For more on what makes the VertDesk v3 surface durable, see our standing desk surface durability testing.
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1. Arauco Facility in Michigan
Arauco’s particle board and lamination facility is the largest of its kind in North America. This $500,000,000 facility in Grayling, Michigan is one of the most advanced in the world, with all raw materials sourced from forests within a 70-mile radius. Sustainability is a major priority – Arauco has expanded FSC-certified logging partnerships from 2 to over 50 local loggers.
2. Raw Material
Logs arrive on a deck and feed into a chipper. Chips are sorted by hard or softwood, sampled for batch tracking, moved to a raw material aging building, and separated into fine or flake sizes in separate silos.
3. Mill and Dry
Flake-sized chips are dropped onto a spinning wheel in the flaker building, shaved to the optimal size, shape, and weight. A conveyer carries them to the dryers, then the screener building, where each particle is sized for its role: fine material for surface layers, long fibers for the core.
4. Former
Dried material passes through a resin dowsing system before entering the former, where it separates into two fine-grain surface layers and one long-fiber core. Surface layers use tight material so routing and sanding reveal the finest grain. The core’s stringy fibers provide the structural strength.
5. Press
Arauco houses the largest continuous press in North America at 52.5 meters long. Air is expelled from the mat as it enters, then varying temperatures and pressures set the resin evenly across the entire board. Boards are cut into sections and observed for quality at the press exit.
6. Cooler
A massive six-wheel cooling machine rotates boards down to workable temperature before stacking. Up to 270 master panels can be loaded onto the cooling wheel at once.
7. Lukki Storage
The Lukki is a fully automated board storage and retrieval system. Panels are stacked into square bundles and held until ready for processing. The system transports up to 192 pallets between storage and the sanding/sawing area.
8. Sand and Saw
Panels run individually through high-speed sanders to remove uneven spots. The Lukki then moves them to the saw line for ripping or crosscutting to exact width and thickness. Finished panels are either bundled as raw boards or moved to the laminate line.
9. Laminate Line
Laminate is thermally fused to the raw board with heat – no adhesive. The process distributes heat evenly across the entire board for consistent gloss. The machine laminates up to 450 panels per hour in 80 design options and multiple textures. This is the same thermally fused process used in the VertDesk v3 Wisconsin assembly for the 4EVERedge edge banding – creating a seam-free, moisture-resistant edge.
Final Thoughts
Arauco’s state-of-the-art facility combined with sustainable use of regional forest resources makes them a leading supplier in the particle board and laminate industry. Their FSC-certified sourcing, thermally fused lamination technology, and automated production quality controls are the foundation of the VertDesk v3 surface. The 4EVERedge process used downstream at K&A Mfg. completes the edge seal that makes the finished desk surface genuinely durable for daily professional use.
Source: btod.com
