Professional Documents
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GFB would be
about 2.8% of the total Canadian gypsum board production and, as the bulk of the finished board is
being shipped to U.S. destinations, their market share in Canada is expected to be even smaller.
2.1.3 Gypsum Building Plasters
Gypsum building plasters applied over lath were used for centuries to finish interior wall and
ceiling surfaces. However, about 30 or 40 years ago, gypsum board replaced plaster as the premier
wall-cladding material due to its ease of application and economy factors. Plastering of the wall
surfaces requires trained, experienced workers. Although plaster can provide a superior wall
surface, these days only a fraction of walls are finished that way. Building plasters have been
largely replaced by more economical and easier-to-apply gypsum board systems.
Building plasters are formulated products that may contain, in addition to calcined gypsum (stucco),
hydrated lime, talc, clay, various chemical additives and admixtures to control product set, handling
and application characteristics. Some building plasters may also contain various aggregates:
materials such as sand, woodfiber, vermiculite or perlite. While some building plasters are applied
over gypsum lath or metal lath, more often veneer plasters are used in thin (1/16" to 3/32") coat
applications over a special type of gypsum board for veneer plasters. One-coat as well as two-coat
(base and finish coats) systems are available.
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2.1.4 Joint Finishing Products
Joint finishing products are an integral part of gypsum board systems. Their role is to finish the
joint between the individual sheets of gypsum board in such a manner that even under critical
lighting the whole wall (or ceiling) gives an impression of a monolithic surface. Typically a paper
joint tape embedded in joint compound is used to bridge the joint. (In a relatively new
development, some glass mesh tape has been used for the same purpose, especially by the "do-it-
yourself" market.) Additional application(s) of joint compounds are required to provide a smooth,
uniform joint treatment.
Joint compounds are highly formulated products consisting of 8 to 12 different raw materials to
ensure a joint compound with the right application, performance and appearance characteristics.
Although the basic composition of each type of compound is common to all brands within that type,
different additives and admixtures make these brand formulations proprietary. Basically, there are
two types of joint compounds on the market,
drying compounds, and
setting compounds.
Drying compounds are usually calcium carbonate-based. The overwhelming majority are produced
as ready mix, compounded with other ingredients, such as talc, mica, thickeners, resin/latex,
perlite, preservatives, and water to produce creamy, easily spreadable paste. These compounds
shrink upon drying, and there is, therefore, a need for further applications of the compound and
feathering of the joint, with proper drying and sanding in between the applications, to obtain a
satisfactory joint. Ready mix joint compound is usually applied in three coats. Gypsum board
manufacturers specify about 67.4 kg of joint compound per 100 m
2
of board (138 lb/MSF).
20
(Similarly about 98 m of joint tape is used for 100 m
2
of board (300'/MSF).) These amounts
already account for small joint compounds and joint tape wastes during their application.
Setting compounds are usually stucco-based and, therefore, come only in dry form. They are
mixed with water only just prior to their application and, depending on their formulation, they
typically then have a 45- or 90-minute pot life. As the hardening of these compounds is a
chemical reaction rather than a physical one (drying), their shrinkage is substantially lower than that
of the ready mix joint compounds. Due to their convenience, ready mix joint compounds are much
more popular than the dry powder materials. According to Statistics Canada, 131,844 tonnes of
ready mix compounds and 11,877 tonnes of dry powder compounds were produced in 1994.
4
Joint compounds are produced and marketed by all three major gypsum board manufacturers, CGC
Inc., Domtar Gypsum, and Westroc Industries Ltd. Louisiana-Pacific offers fiber filled ready mix
compound compatible with their gypsum fiberboard. There are also a number of independent joint
compounds producers, among them Synkoloid in Vancouver and Edmonton, Ontario Gypsum and
Bondex in Toronto, Rayproc in Montreal, and Maritime Gypsum in New Brunswick.
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2.2 GYPSUM BOARD MANUFACTURING
Gypsum board is manufactured in a two step process. In the first step finely crushed and ground
gypsum, calcium sulfate dihydrate (CaSO
4
2H
2
O), is heated and partially dehydrated (calcined) to
calcium sulfate hemihydrate (CaSO
4
1/2H
2
O), called stucco in the industry, also popularly known
as Plaster of Paris. A unique characteristic of stucco is that when it is mixed with the proper
amount of water, it forms a smooth plastic mass which can be molded into any desired shape.
When the hardening has been completed, the mass has been chemically restored to its rock-like
state. This characteristic has also been used in the development and production of gypsum board.
In the second step of the manufacturing process stucco is mixed with a number of additives, foam
and an excess amount of water to prepare gypsum slurry which is extruded on a fast moving,
continuous board production line between two layers of special gypsum paper. Raw gypsum
board is then allowed to fully hydrate - calcium sulfate hemihydrate is converted back to dihydrate -
before it is cut to the desired size and before it enters a gypsum kiln, where at elevated
temperatures the excess water is driven off. The gypsum board is then stacked, ready to be
shipped. The process is described in literature from a number of gypsum board manufacturers as
well as equipment suppliers.
7-12
The basic manufacturing steps are depicted in Figure 2.1 and summarized below:
2.2.1 Extraction
Rock mining/quarrying
Gypsum rock is open pit quarried or (underground) mined, generally by drilling and blasting, then
moved to a primary crusher close to the quarry/mine site. The primary deposits of high quality
gypsum in Canada are found in the Atlantic provinces, where open-pit quarrying is used. The
quarry process begins by first removing the earth over the deposit. Then gypsum rock is drilled
and blasted loose to be carried to the processing plant where it is crushed and screened. The largest
quarry in the world, National Gypsum's Milford NS operation produces up to 4.5-million tonnes of
gypsum a year. Quarrying is also a primary extraction technique used in Manitoba and British
Columbia.
In south-western Ontario, gypsum is mined in underground mines. There, gypsum lies about 80 to
100 feet below ground level. The deposits lie in flat beds approximately 48" thick, interlayed with
limestone. Either mine shafts driven straight into the ground or long sloping tunnels leading
through the overburden of soil, clay and limestone rock are used to access the gypsum strata. From
there extend streets, separated from each other by pillars of rock left to support the roof of the
mine. Domtars #3 mine in Caledonia recently went to a continuous mining technology using
electrically powered machines to cut the rock in place, thus eliminating the use of any explosives.
Front-end loaders, diesel-powered shuttle cars, trucks, hoists and conveyor belts are all used in
various quarrying and mining operations.
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gypsum rock
(mined or
quarried)
by-product
gypsum
(FGD or TiO2)
or
crusher screen
hammer
mill
gypsum
bin
continuous
kettle
calciner
screen
Raymond mill
stucco
bin
additives
face
paper
back
paper
pin mixer
H2O
board
knife
stacking,
bundling
gypsum board to warehouse & shipping
board kiln
Fig. 2.1 Flow diagram of a typical gypsum board plant using continuous kettle calcination
(adapted from Refs. 7, 8, 9).
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Primary crushing
In the primary crusher, gypsum rock is reduced to approximately 2" - 5" or less in size. From here
the crushed rock can be sent to secondary crushing and conveyed directly to the mill, it can be
stockpiled, or, as is the situation in most cases because quarry and the production facilities are
usually not in the same location, it can be shipped by ship, rail or truck to the manufacturing plant.
In Canada only CGCs Hagersville plant and Domtars Caledonia one are located directly on the
mine.
2.2.2 Calcination Plant
Secondary crushing, drying, milling
After primary crushing, gypsum rock may be sent through the dryers. Normally gypsum rock has
1-3% free moisture content (quarry water). At this moisture content level, it may by-pass the dryer.
However, if the moisture content is higher (typically up to 10%), as is often the case if the material
has been stockpiled outside, some drying in directly heated rotary dryers is needed in order to
reduce moisture to below the 3% level. Secondary crushers, typically hammermills, reduce the rock
further to about 1" in diameter. Baghouses are preferred to collect fine particulate matter, although
some plants may use electrostatic precipitators or cyclones. These operations usually take place at
the plant site.
In most of the processes the crushed rock is fed to the roller or other type of mill, where its size is
further reduced so that 90% will pass through a 150 m sieve. The resulting form of gypsum is
called landplaster, referring to one of its possible uses. In some processes (Imp Mills, for example)
calcination and grinding can be accomplished simultaneously and, in such a case, no prior grinding
is required. Rock drying/grinding consumes ~6% of the total energy required to produce gypsum
board (not counting energy needed to produce paper skins for the board).
13
Other sources of gypsum
Quarried or mined gypsum represents the bulk of the gypsum supply and consumption. However,
there are two additional sources of raw gypsum that can be used: waste gypsum (board) and
industrial by-product gypsum.
The term waste gypsum is understood to mean internally generated plant waste and, more recently,
also new construction waste collected and brought back to the manufacturing facilities, primarily in
the Vancouver and Toronto metropolitan areas. (No gypsum plants accept any demolition waste
due to possible contamination.) When waste gypsum board is used, it has to be broken down,
chopped and crushed. A variety of different equipment and techniques are used: Norba crushers
appear to be the most efficient and favoured ones. In some cases a portion of paper / paper fibers is
removed or screened from the waste gypsum stream. Typically, the gypsum board plants that
recycle waste gypsum board use up to about 20% waste in their gypsum stream. Unless prevented
by some technical reasons, producers like to do so, as it makes not only environmental, but also
economic sense.
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Use of by-product, chemical gypsum is new to the North American continent. In the U.S.,
by-product gypsum represented only 3.6% of the total gypsum supply in 1994.
2
In Canada,
Westroc is the first gypsum board producer to use FGD gypsum on any significant scale starting
in 1995.
Flue gas desulfurization (FGD) gypsum
Growing awareness of the environmental damage caused by SO
2
emissions and the resulting acid
rain, followed by legislative actions, spurred research and development of a large number of FGD
processes. Wet FGD processes are the most popular and the only processes that have the potential
to produce board-grade gypsum. These processes are well established and have been implemented
at many Japanese and German utilities, and increasingly in North American ones as well. Wet
FGD processes use lime or limestone and may or may not produce gypsum co-product. The
calcium sorbent reacts with SO
2
to produce calcium sulfite hemihydrate, which can be oxidized to
calcium sulfate dihydrate (gypsum). The production of FGD gypsum has four stages:
Stage 1 Desulfurization: The dedusted flue gas is sprayed into a washing tower
with a limestone suspension in a counterflow operation. The primary purpose of
desulfurization is accomplished by eliminating the SO
2
from the flue gas. The
calcium sulfite thus obtained occurs as a sludge in the quencher of the washing
tower.
Stage 2 Forced Oxidation: Conversion of the calcium sulfite sludge into gypsum
is achieved through its oxidation in the quencher of the FGD reaction vessel using
atmospheric oxygen. First, the highly insoluble calcium sulfite reacts with further
SO
2
to produce calcium bisulfite, easily soluble in water, that subsequently reacts
spontaneously with atmospheric oxygen blown into the reactor to produce calcium
sulfate dihydrate, i.e. gypsum. This second stage is the operation that leads to the
conversion of waste sulfite into a product: FGD gypsum. In the course of this
stage, the gypsum crystals increase markedly in size, up to an average of 50 m.
Stage 3 Gypsum Separation: Large crystals of a desirable size are separated by
means of hydrocyclone and collected in a separate vessel.
Stage 4 Washing and Dewatering: Finally, in the last stage, the gypsum crystal
suspension is filtered or centrifuged, and the gypsum cake is washed with clean
water to remove water soluble substances, especially chlorides, sodium and
magnesium ions. Dewatering to less than 10% moisture is achieved by means of
vacuum filters or centrifuges. The FGD gypsum thus obtained is a product
chemically identical with natural gypsum. FGD gypsum is a salable, commercial
grade gypsum suitable for gypsum board manufacturing or any other applications
calling for gypsum.
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Processing of by-product gypsum by gypsum board producers poses challenges of its own. Due
to its very fine particle size and residual moisture, handling of by-product gypsum can be difficult.
Even if modern filtration presses and centrifuges are used for dewatering, gypsums moisture
content is in the 8 to 10% range when delivered to the gypsum board plants. Typically, by-product
gypsum has to be dried prior to its calcination using a flash dryer or a fluidized bed dryer, requiring
a major modification/up-grade of the existing natural gypsum handling operation. Drying of by-
product gypsum with 10% moisture content requires about 0.55 GJ of thermal energy and 0.04 GJ
of electrical energy per tonne.
14
Calcination
Calcination is perhaps the most important step of the gypsum processing and gypsum board
manufacturing process. During the calcination, gypsum that in its dihydrate form contains 21% by
weight of chemically bound water is heated and converted to stucco, calcium sulfate hemihydrate:
heat
CaSO
4
2H
2
O > CaSO
4
1/2 H
2
O + 1 1/2 H
2
O
Although different types of equipment are available for calcination of gypsum, calcination kettles
that can be operated in either batch or continuous mode are the most commonly used equipment in
North America. To produce gypsum board stucco, continuous calcination kettles are usually used
with a throughput of 300 to 500 tonnes a day. Although several designs are available, the basic
principle involves an externally heated cylindrical vessel with a height greater than its diameter,
enclosed within a refractory shell and complete with stirrer, flues and internal baffles. Kettles can
be fired by coal, oil, or gas.
Gypsum (landplaster) is fed into the kettle from the top. Heat is introduced from a firebox below
and flows upward around the vessel. In submerged combustion kettles, a modern type of a
continuous kettle, a tube is installed so that combustion gases are discharged into the calcining
mass. The kettle contents boil violently, as chemically bound water is released as steam at around
120C. Heavier stucco tends to settle at the lower section of the kettle from where it is continuously
discharged through a plunging tube into a hot pit where cooling occurs. In practice due to the
inability to heat all the particles of gypsum uniformly, the dumped stucco will often contain small
amounts of uncalcined gypsum as well as of completely dehydrated anhydrite. The modern
continuous calcination kettles require about 0.9 GJ to 1.0 GJ of energy per tonne of finished
stucco.
15
In older, less energy-efficient kettles, the energy consumption can be as high as 1.3
GJ/tonne. Corresponding electrical energy requirements are given as between 0.01 GJ/tonne and
0.03 GJ/tonne. Calcination consumes ~27% of the total energy required to produce gypsum
board
13
, and represents the second most energy-intensive step of the gypsum board manufacturing
process.
Other types of calciners can be used, but lag in popularity behind the continuous calcination kettles.
At one time, counter-current direct heating rotary kilns, similar to those used in Portland cement
manufacturing, were used by the gypsum industry. Due to the improved design and energy
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efficiency of the calcination kettles, most of the rotary kilns in the gypsum industry were replaced.
Now only Atlantic Gypsum in Corner Brook is using such a kiln. Domtar Gypsum is using Imp
mills (flash calciners with simultaneous impact hammermill grinding) in some of its operations, and
Louisiana-Pacifics gypsum fiberboard operation in Port Hawkesbury employs a Claudius Peters
flash calciner that incorporates a ring ball grinder in its design. The energy efficiency of rotary
kilns is similar to large continuous kettles, while that of flash calciners is reported to be slightly
better.
Raymond mill, stucco bins
After stucco has cooled it is elevated to bins from where, in some plants, it is fed to a Raymond Mill
for further grinding to get the fineness needed. In the Raymond Mill stucco is ground by rolls
running centrifugally against the stationary outer ring.
2.2.3 Gypsum Board Plant
The layout of a gypsum board plant is usually U-shaped with the board line from the paper roll
stands to the board cut-off knife forming one side of the U, the transfer station its bottom, and the
board dryer returning parallel to the board line its other side.
11
Mixing
Stucco for gypsum board production is blown from the supply bins (or mill) to the board plant.
The amount of stucco is metered and fed to the stucco feed system. Dry board additives and
admixtures such as starch, accelerator, retarder, and other ingredients depending on the type of
board being made, are conveyed and blended with the stucco in a mixing screw conveyor. The
blended dry materials, water with premixed liquid additives such as water reducers, and
pregenerated foam are fed directly into the pin mixer, and the resulting slurry is deposited in a
number of streams on the paper as it starts to form the board. To achieve the right fluidity of the
slurry, a volume of water in excess of the amount needed for complete hydration has to be used.
(This excess water of convenience will later be driven off during the drying process.) Two small
edge mixers are often used to prepare and deposit higher density slurry for the board edges, to
improve their strength and handling properties.
Paper
Gypsum board is frequently described as a sandwich, with gypsum in its core and paper as its
facings. Making the paper for gypsum board is as complex a process as making the gypsum board
itself.
9
The raw materials used are waste paper from newspaper, magazines, and old corrugated
cardboard. Waste paper is fed by conveyor into a pulper, a large blender that disintegrates and
dissolves the old paper into a pulp, a slurry of paper fibers. The paper slurry is then cleaned of
various contaminants such as bailing wires, staples, glue and ink, before it is fed into the paper-
making machine. Two types of paper making equipment, i.e. rotating cylinders or Fourdrinier flat
wire machines, can be used to produce gypsum paper.
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A cylinder machine rotates a large drum through a vat of pulp slurry. A wide felt belt passes over
the top of the turning drum of a cylinder. The cylinder pulls the pulp up and presses it against the
bottom of the felt, where it sticks to form a single ply of paper. It takes nine cylinder-made plies
pressed together to make a single continuous sheet of gypsum board paper.
9
The characteristics of
the pulp entering the vats determine whether the system produces cream stock, called ivory, used
for the face of the gypsum board or gray stock, which makes the back side. The Fourdrinier
method uses two machines instead of nine to make a two-ply paper with the same performance
characteristics as nine-ply, cylinder made paper. The pulp slurry is systematically fed onto a
continuously running wire screen (the Fourdrinier). As the screen moves forward, water drains
from the pulp to create the paper. One Fourdrinier machine makes the surface (top) ply, which may
be cream or gray stock depending on the pulp mixture. The second machine produces the gray
(bottom) ply.
From this point, both systems operate in the same way. In the press section, the paper plies are
pressed together to squeeze out the excess water. Next, they enter a series of high-temperature
dryers where any remaining water is removed. The bone dry paper enters what is called a
calender stack, where different chemicals or treatments are applied to the top and bottom
surfaces to create the specific finishes required. For example, a dye and sizing agent will be added
to the top surface to produce the moisture-resistant characteristics for the moisture resistant
(green) board. The face and back paper each weigh about 45 to 55 lb/MSF. On the basis of
one source
16
that estimates the energy content of gypsum board paper prepared from recycled
stock at about 25.4 GJ/tonne, we can extrapolate the related energy input into the finished gypsum
board at about 12.4 MJ/m
2
of board.
Gypsum board line
The paper is placed on racks beside the pin mixer, where stucco slurry has been mixed with water.
The racks run above and below the exit of the pin mixer, so that the stucco slurry can be
sandwiched between the paper. The stucco slurry is then spread onto the ivory-coloured face paper
on a moving belt and covered, or sandwiched, with the top paper, or gray back, to be formed into
gypsum board at the master roll. As the board passes along the belt line the edges are formed,
shaped and sealed. The proper identification is printed on the gray back. The long continuous
sheet of gypsum board now travels about 200 to 275 meters on moving belts and roller conveyors
while setting (hydrating). The long board line is needed to allow the slurry time (about four
minutes) to harden before it is cut. By the time the end of the conveyor is approached, the stucco
slurry has set; hydrated back to gypsum.
Knife, transfer station
An automatic device trips a knife that cuts each board to the correct length. The individual boards
are now transferred, inverted, turned over, stacked six or even eight layers high and sent slowly back
to the drying kiln.
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Gypsum board drying kiln
In the drying kiln, the excess amount of water introduced into the slurry mix in the pin mixer in
order to have the slurry of the correct working characteristics, has to be driven off. Oil, gas or even
electricity can be used as the source of heat in kilns. Drying of the gypsum board in the kiln
consumes more energy than all the other steps of the gypsum board manufacturing process
combined, representing ~67% of the total.
13
The temperature and humidity in the kiln are closely
controlled in three or four separate sections, first a lot of heat, then gradually less. After some 60
minutes of drying the board emerges at the take-off end of the machine where it is inspected,
taped in two-panel bundles, stacked and taken to the warehouse, ready for shipment.
2.2.4 Types of Gypsum Board Produced
The industry has developed and is producing a range of different gypsum boards for different
applications. National Standard CAN/CSA-A82.27-M91 covers gypsum board, defines its various
types and specifies their composition and special properties. The types of gypsum board covered
include:
gypsum board (regular gypsum board)
type X gypsum board (fire-resistant gypsum board)
vinyl-faced gypsum board
foil-backed gypsum board
gypsum backing board
water-resistant gypsum board
gypsum coreboard
gypsum sheathing
gypsum base for veneer plaster
gypsum lath
exterior gypsum soffit board
While some of the above boards, such as regular or type X, are produced in large volume, some of
the other materials are specialties only. Furthermore, many of the above boards are made in
different thicknesses: 1/2" and 5/8" gypsum board are among the more popular ones. Statistics
Canada does not provide a detailed breakdown for the volume of different boards produced,
distinguishing only between plain gypsum board, gypsum board covered with vinyl or other
substances, and sheathing.
4
U.S. statistics are published by USDI Bureau of Mines
2
, and the
breakdown of various boards is more detailed. It states that of the prefabricated products, based on
surface area,
63% was regular gypsum board,
24% was fire-resistant type X gypsum board,
5% was 5/16" mobile home board,
3% was water- and/or moisture-resistant board, and the remaining
5% covered lath, veneer base, sheathing, predecorated, and other types of board.
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Of the gypsum regular board,
82% was 1/2", and
10% was 5/8".
A detailed breakdown of gypsum board consumed in the U.S.A. is given in Table 2.2, and in the
absence of similar Canadian data we will assume a similar split for Canada as well.
TABLE 2.2: TYPES OF GYPSUM BOARDS SOLD OR USED IN THE U.S.A., 1994
Product Thousand
square feet
Thousand
t onnes
Val ue
[US $]
%
(based on
ar ea)
Lath:
3/8" 6, 886 4 1,410 0. 0297
1/2" 137 > 0.5 24 0. 0006
other 5, 867 5 407 0. 0253
Total lath 12, 890 10 1,841 0. 0556
Veneer base 419, 149 374 36,667 1. 8070
Sheathing 286, 166 242 33,544 1. 2337
Regular gypsum board:
3/8" 918, 125 711 69,102 3. 9582
1/2" 11, 885, 323 9,357 1,487,447 51. 2395
5/8" 1, 466, 834 1,225 57,282 6. 3238
1" 172, 079 155 31,905 0. 7419
other (1/4", 7/16", 3/4") 128, 872 101 16,470 0. 5556
Total regular board 14, 571, 233 11,548 1,662,206 62. 8189
Type X gypsum board 5, 526, 219 5,157 460,985 23. 8244
Predecorated board 87, 066 78 27,872 0. 3754
5/16" mobile home board 1, 226, 687 843 117,345 5. 2884
Water-resistant board 658, 432 558 84,529 2. 8386
Other 407, 790 382 27,168 1. 7580
Grand total 23, 195, 632 19,192 2,452,158 100. 0000
Source: adapted from Ref. (2)
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2.3 GYPSUM FIBERBOARD
2.3.1 Gypsum Fiberboard Manufacturing
The basic raw materials for the production of gypsum fiberboard in Louisiana-Pacifics plant in
Nova Scotia are local natural gypsum, waste newsprint/magazine stock from the U.S./Canadian east
coast, and perlite from Greece or New Mexico.
18
Various additives and admixtures such as lime,
starch, accelerators, etc., are used as well. The board has a 3-layer composition: the surface layers
contain paper fibers and stucco, the core layer also contains expanded perlite, which helps to control
the board density by reducing its overall weight by 20 to 25%.
Raw materials preparation
The basic material flow is shown in Fig. 2.2. The waste paper bales are transported to the plant site
by barge. (The barge also takes the finished product back to the consumers in the more populated
areas on the east coast.) The waste paper is broken down first in a shredder to 2" x 2" clippings.
The hammermill reduces the particle size further to about 1" x 1" pieces, which are subsequently
milled down to fibers and wetted. Perlite arrives by truck and is expanded in four parallel lines to
about eight times its original volume. In a primary blender, perlite is mixed with water, and in a
secondary blender wet fibers are added to wet perlite. Natural gypsum comes to the plant from the
local Nova Scotia mine by rail.
18
Gypsum rock extraction, preparation and calcination is done in a
similar manner as for conventional gypsum board, and as discussed in Sections 2.2.1 and 2.2.2
above.
Board forming and pressing
It is in the raw materials streams mixing, board forming and pressing, that GFB processing differs
from gypsum board manufacturing. The process is considered to be semi-dry, the amount of
water added to the raw materials (fibers and perlite) and on the line just before it enters the press is
carefully controlled and is close to the theoretical amount needed for stucco hydration. The three
layers and related three raw material blends are kept separate in handling and deposition on the line,
and can be identified in the finished product.
The forming station consists of three conveyor belts, one for each surface layer and one for the core
layer. In each layer a weight-controlled layer of prewetted fibers or prewetted fibers and perlite is
formed and a weight controlled layer of stucco is put on the top. Unmixed layers of wet and dry
materials are conveyed to the mixing heads in front of the press, and spread onto the press belt.
The board is produced in a continuous roller type COE Manufacturing (Washington Iron Works)
press. The press is about 30 meters long, and the residence time of the board in the press is about 3
minutes. As the stucco setting characteristics are accelerated by means of additives, the initial board
setting is finished before the board leaves the press.
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gypsum rock
(mined or
quarried)
by-product
gypsum
(FGD or TiO2)
or
crusher screen
gypsum
bin
Claudius
Peters
flash
calciner
screen Raymond mill
stucco
bin
additives
cross cut
saw
stacking,
bundling
GFB to warehouse & shipping
board dryer
paper
shredding
fiber
mills
perlite
perlite
expansion
blending
waste
paper
spreading
surface
layers fibres
spreading
centre layer
fibres & perlite
mixing mixing
continuous press forming belt
moisture
Fig. 2.2 Flow diagram of a gypsum fiberboard (GFB) plant with a Claudius Peters flash
calciner (adapted from Refs. 18, 34).
The Athena
TM
Project:
Gypsum Board and Associated Finishing Products 2-17
Board line, kiln dryer
After the press, the continuous ribbon of the green board is cut to 22- or 24-foot-long pieces
using a high pressure water jet, and after about 15 minutes spent moving on the conveyor and
completing the hydration in a manner similar to that of conventional gypsum board, GFB enters the
first heating zone of an 8-deck Dornier dryer. The dryer has a screen belt as a carrier and jet
nozzles to distribute the hot air evenly onto the boards. It has 17 heating zones, each individually
controlled. The source of heating energy is propane gas. The residence time of the board in the
kiln dryer is about 25 minutes, and the final board moisture content is about 0.8%. A finishing area
for final trim and cutting, application of seal coat, stackers etc. follows the dryer.
18
2.3.2 Types of Gypsum Fiberboard Produced
Louisiana-Pacific is producing three types of gypsum fiberboard:
1/4" and 3/8" FiberBond
GFB board.
As noted in Section 2.1.2, we estimate that all L-Ps FiberBond