WPC – Wood Plastic Composite – a promising and sustainable green material
Hardik Panchal for Wood News, India.
WPC – Wood Plastic Composite – a promising and sustainable green material is being evolved as a fundamental product for India, after being well adopted by the world.
India, a country is having vivid climate conditions, vivid culture, vivid growth patterns and booming infrastructure industry today. Increasing industrial growth is empowering entire India by covering four of its extreme corners, geographically. Increasing human potential is being supported by fascinating employment and business opportunities pan India.
Demand is rapidly increasing for interior and exterior grade materials in building material industry. Modular kitchen are in high demand today, parallel to modular office and home furniture. Timber import is increasing day by day and lot of waste is also being generated in volumes. This waste is coming out of saw mills, plywood mills, veneer units, Particleboard units, MDF units as well as from good quality agriculture residues like Cotton stalks, Sugarcane bagasse, Coir fibers and even Rice husk.
Wood panels are tested and tried to be made out of agriculture residues other than bagasse. At certain level success is achieved but not really promising, thus, question for ‘effective utilization pattern’ of good quality agro residues is still remain. At the same time demand for environmentally appropriate technology is increasing which can really reduce consumption of natural wood. Wood panel technology demands for efficient fiber conversion techniques that can drastically reduce fiber wastage.
WPC, Wood plastic composite, a product with a class, can help meeting global demand of wood products and wood panels. It is a new kind of synthetic material made from waste plastic & wood discharged from mills & factories as well as agriculture residues. It is a natural fit with primary and secondary forest product industries. By construction this product is formulated from – plant fibers as fillers and reinforcements – for polymers. This is one of the fastest growing types of polymer additive.
WPC can replace many direct materials like Solid/Natural wood, Plywood, MDF boards, Particle boards, Steel in various applications. Finished Products can be made out with Wood plastic Composite is classified as follows:
| – WPC MDF boards | – WPC flooring | – WPC pallets |
| – WPC readymade Doors | – WPC wall cladding | – WPC moldings |
| – WPC readymade Door Frames | – WPC Decking lumber | – WPC planks |
WPC product characteristics
WPC does not decay internally, rot or propagate mold. It can be cut, drilled, nailed and sanded like normal wood. All these processing can be done with standard tools. WPC flooring, lumber, cladding can be directly used untreated. WPC production is a 100% safe manufacturing practice having no process waste of materials, as production waste can be easily ground up and processed into top quality product again.
This is highly water resistant and resistant to bacteria & insects such as Termite & fungus. Importantly, it can be easily shaped using heat and can be shaped through molds & extrusion technology. Extruded WPC is a highly eco-friendly product & versatile building material to be used for interior and exterior applications.
WPC MDF boards can be processed with all panel processing machines like CNC router, Panel saw, Beam saw, Vacuum press, Edge benders, Multi boring and other machines. Absolute moisture resistant property gives biggest advantage of using this product into Modular Kitchen making. A versatile application of Thin MDF for back supports and closures of Modular furniture is very well served with WPC MDF.
WPC Doors is fine quality product with uniform polymer structure and can be used for CNC routing for precise and accurate surface engraving. WPC doors cover total application area of one home taking from Main door to bathroom doors.
WPC Flooring is a sturdy product and can be used on high water usage areas like swimming pools, gardens, walkways. Same product can be used for bungalows, apartments and offices for exterior and interior surface coverings.
WPC planks can be used as a perfect replacement of natural wood for making customized product with carpentry skills.
This is a green product and can be made out of wood waste and agriculture waste mixed with Virgin grade and recycled grade thermoplastic materials.