Chipboard

At buildingmaterials.co.uk we offer great prices on chipboard and all other Timber products.

Chipboard, also known as particleboard, is an engineered wood product manufactured from wood particles, such as wood chips, sawmill shavings, or even saw dust, and a synthetic resin or other suitable binder, which is pressed and extruded. Chipboard is a composite material.

Chipboard is cheaper, denser and more uniform than conventional wood and plywood and is substituted for them when appearance and strength are less important than cost. However, chipboard can be made more attractive by painting or the use of wood veneers that are glued onto surfaces that will be visible. Though it is denser than conventional wood, it is the lightest and weakest type of fiberboard, except for insulation board. Medium-density fibreboard and hardboard, also called high-density fiberboard, are stronger and denser than chipboard. Different grades of chipboard have different densities, with higher density connoting greater strength and greater resistance to failure of screw fasteners.

A major disadvantage of chipboard is that it is very prone to expansion and discoloration due to moisture, particularly when it is not covered with paint or another sealer. Therefore, it is rarely used outdoors or places that have high levels of moisture, with the exception of some bathrooms, kitchens and laundries, where it is commonly used as an underlayment beneath a continuous sheet of vinyl flooring.

Chipboard is manufactured by mixing wood particles or flakes together with a resin and forming the mix into a sheet. This is why it is also know as particleboard. The raw material to be used for the particles is fed into a disc chipper with between four and sixteen radially arranged blades. The particles are first dried, after which any oversized or undersized particles are screened out.