Different sheet material types have specific performance characteristics and are typically application-specific. But Finsa’s Superpan product is different, it’s is a super-versatile product which offers furniture firms high performance alternatives to standard sheet material types. Superpan is also the bedrock to an impressive and growing range under-pinning a number of the Spanish multi-national group’s products.
The first Superpan boards came off the line in Porto in 2000 where 350,000 cubic metres are now produced in a highly automated environment. A second production facility is now in the final planning stages and this will increase Superpan capacity by another 250,000 cubic metres.
So how has this Superpan product created its own niche in a tough marketplace? And what exactly is Superpan? Put simply, Superpan is a quality and highly versatile wood-based board comprising a chipboard core sandwiched between two layers of MDF-like fibres produced using a patented continuous process. Essentially, Superpan has similar properties to MDF with the cost-effectiveness of chipboard.
Finsa UK’s Rafael Willisch explains that while Superpan is a chipboard core, sandwiched between two face layers of MDF-like fibre, Finsa’s expensively-developed unique manufacturing process has achieved this with no extra cost to the user. “Whereas some door manufacturers, for example, have resorted to a solid MDF substrate,
Superpan offers exactly the same qualities at the cost of chipboard.” Rafael says that the price difference between chipboard and MDF has allowed Superpan to find a natural position in the market.
So how does the Superpan perform? The advantages of Superpan are that it is clean to cut and is ideal for drilling and edging. In its Superpan Top specification, it is also suitable for face routing as it has a 4mm thick fibre surface. Superpan is easy to successfully add a decorative surface, such as melamine, HPL, veneers or paint.
Superpan is highly impact resistant and possesses low surface moisture absorption – above all though, it’s key feature has to the performance versus cost equation.
For the furniture industry, there is a host of applications which Superpan can readily be recommended for including kitchen, office and domestic furniture. Products such as doors, post-formed worktops, semi-finished components, T&G flooring tiles and shop fittings have become typical fare.
Since the first Superpan product was developed, Finsa has come to realise its multiple potential uses which has led to introduction of numerous variants. These include the (aforementioned) Superpan Top; an E-Z Class 2 low-formaldehyde type; Superpan Tech P4 (load bearing), P5 (moisture resistant load-bearing), P6 (heavy duty load-bearing).
The Porto factory is also home to a melamine laminating line which produces Superpan Décor – and the beautiful Superpan Natur which is faced with natural wood veneers.
One of the most recent Superpan incarnations, and very successful in the UK, is the lightweight Superpan Star product – the result of collaboration between Finsa and German chemical giant BASF where a polymer called Kaurit Light is introduced into the chipboard core during the manufacturing process resulting in a board some 20% lighter without compromising any of its outstanding physical properties. Superpan Star went on to win the Design in Manufacturing (DIMA) Award at the W12 exhibition in Birmingham.
Superpan Star has obvious advantages for furniture manufacturing, transport and handling costs and all interior fit-out applications. Superpan Star has also found traction in diverse marketplaces where chipboard and MDF would be less appropriate: such as caravans, motorhomes and other transport applications, prefabricated buildings and other situations where light weight, high performance characteristics are a key issue.
The Superpan Tech variations are used widely for packaging, shelving for industrial racking, and flooring for suspended floor and mezzanine applications. Other specific applications include shuttering for a smooth concrete finish and for fitting out the interiors of the fast growing van and delivery vehicle market.
Finsa is working on fire retardant (FR) versions of this highly versatile wood-based board product.
Finsa UK hold extensive stocks of Superpan at their dockside warehouses on Merseyside and also make the product available through appointed national distributors.
