1. GLOBAL CEMENT: PLANT VISIT
Emma Davidson, Global Cement Magazine
Celenit-Apioneeringwoodwool
cementboardmanufacturer
Making changes to the new automated system
from the older, manual-based system was not
straightforward for Celenit. “That was the difficult
part of the plan,” explains Sales Director Domenico
Gastadello. “In the beginning there was just a pro-
totype, no experience. So we’ve been through a
learning process.” The fact that Celenit has weath-
ered that learning process in the post 2008 climate,
when competitors are rumoured to be reducing the
number of production sites, is in itself descriptive of
the versatility of the new system.
In an industry still largely characterised by basic
facilities and (on occasion) human error, the old
Celenit system, originally built in 1963 and sub-
sequently updated in 1973, 1984 and 1991 to
accommodate changing industry standards, was far
more representative of the commercial norm in the
WWCB industry. Such inefficient manual systems
(and their reliance on the judgment of individuals
manually operating various machines) made the
production of multiple boards of consistent quality
all but impossible with the old equipment. This is
because some batches will invariably have more ce-
ment or more wood than others. What Celenit has
achieved with the new system is the ability to consist-
ently produce thousands of boards - each with the
same technical performance as the last.
The current upgrade included the replacement
of the manual shredding machines by two CVS-16
rotating wood wool machines from Eltomation and
a robot to cut and stack the boards. This machine
shreds the wood to produce wood ‘wool.’ Prior to
this upgrade, the Celenit system required multiple
small machines, each with one operator, shredding
small portions of a tree trunk to produce wood wool.
In contrast, the automated CVS-16 requires just
one operator and allows for the production of high
quality wood wool from entire trunks. The plant
upgrade was finally completed in 2010, “although,
there are always things that have to be fine tuned,”
says Domenico.
Mountains of consistent WWCB
The efficiency of this new system is rather well em-
phasised by the mountain of neatly stacked cement
boards dominating the forecourt, some of which
were felled trunks on a different yard only a day ear-
lier. “Our process begins with the wood,” Domenico
is careful to explain. “We buy it from the moun-
Italy’s only wood wool cement board (WWCB) manufacturer, Celenit SpA, has been at the
forefront of the wood wool cement board industry’s technical revolution, blazing the way
with one of the first fully-automated production lines in Europe. The new line is a far cry
from the simpler one that it has replaced and is adapted in-house to meet the needs of its
small site and global consumer base. Global Cement’s Emma Davidson visited the company.
Below: Celenit’s small yet
versatileWWCB plant is lo-
cated in a rural area of northern
Italy, close to the historic city
ofVenice.
w
34 GlobalCementMagazineJanuary2014 www.GlobalCement.com
“Fromthemomentthewood
comes here to the moment
that the pallet is despatched
to the customer, everything is
done by the machines.”
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2. tains, from merchants no further than 250km away.”
Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Cer-
tification (PEFC) certified merchants supply the
sustainably grown spruce at a sustainably grown cost,
which is a justifiable expense given that quality of the
wood is perhaps the most essential element of the
production process. If the wood is too dry it burns
in the shredder and if it is too humid it creates issues
with integrity of the final product. The other major
component of the boards is the high quality grey and
white OPC, which Celenit receives from a number of
qualified suppliers, including Italcementi.
An automated process
“From the moment the wood comes here to the mo-
ment that the pallet is despatched to the customers
everything is done by the machines,” adds Domenico.
This is the essential difference between the Celenit
facilities and the majority of those operated by rival
WWCB manufacturers. Traditionally the process has
been decidedly manual, with one operator cutting the
wood, another forming the pallet and only a limited
level of mechanisation at the stages in between when
the wood is mixed with cement. The change to a
fully automated system is, therefore, quite a leap and
Domenico freely admits that the biggest challenge
presented by the entire design and installation pro-
cess has been training staff to operate the new system.
Yet the advantages of that investment speak for them-
selves. Not only has Celenit achieved an increase in
productivity of 20% and a reduction in labour costs,
the plant now runs most of the year on a manual staff
of only 27. The ability to produce thousands of boards
of consistent quality is an invaluable advantage in an
industry where very few competitors can make simi-
lar claims.
The trade off between full mechanisation and
the traditional manual system appears to be, rather
predictably, maintenance. On top of the two engi-
neers who oversee the line during production, it
takes a further team of four workers three to four
hours every night to clean the system once produc-
tion has ceased. Larger jobs, like changing the line,
have to be done during the Christmas and summer
breaks when the whole plant closes down. However,
the advantage is that, from 06:00 when the first shift
of four people clocks on to 20:00 when the second
clocks off, 10,000 new boards can be added to those
on the front yard awaiting distribution. Not that the
current climate requires such high production levels,
since demand rarely drives production higher than
7000-8000 boards/day. This is a trend characteristic
of the WWCB industry and the wider construction
industry as a whole.
Around 10 years ago, the local markets for pro-
ducers like Celenit, Knauf and Troldtekt were large
and dynamic enough to satisfy their growth. The
economic downturn has forced them to stand on the
international stage in direct competition with each
GLOBAL CEMENT: PLANT VISIT
www.GlobalCement.com GlobalCementMagazineJanuary2014 35
Celenit’s markets
The Italian market accounts for 70% of Celenit’s
total sales. Here the boards are sold in large part
through building merchants and an indirect
force of independent traders, with 20% sold
directly to the consumer. Outside Italy, Celenit
sells globally through local distributors to coun-
tries including Spain, Portugal, France, Israel,
Lebanon, Croatia, Austria and Switzerland.
Left: A stack ofWWCB
awaiting distribution in
Celenit’s storage yard.
Left: Cement silo 2 holds high
quality OPC provisioned from
suppliers including Italcementi.

3. GLOBAL CEMENT: PLANT VISIT
other, with all the resultant pressure on pricing which
that entails. The answer, at least for Celenit, has been
a big push into new markets. It has adapted pro-
duction to include composite boards with superior
insulating qualities, achieved through the addition
of wood fibre or mineral wool to their established
WWCB products.
The other change has been an expansion into
the acoustic market, a relatively untapped area in
Celenit’s native Italy. “Instead of just selling cheap
boards for construction, we are trying to develop the
acoustic market in Italy,” explains Domenico.
This second strategy isn’t without its own set of
challenges. Acoustic boards, unlike other unseen
construction boards, have to serve as both func-
tional and decorative products. Board quality and
appearance must be uniform, since the lattice of
wood strands frozen in cement is part of the finish
and in many rooms it will be a visible feature. This,
then, is where the fully-automated system comes into
its own, providing a consistency of quality essential
to the production of ‘pretty’ boards for the acoustic
market. Different finishes can be easily achieved by
changing the size of the wood wool strands, by alter-
ing the shredding blade to provide consumers with
a choice of three wood strengths – ranging from
1-3mm - depending on the client’s preference.
Examples of these different finishes (and Italian
humour) can be seen throughout the Celenit office.
The rainbow table in the waiting room is made from
a patchwork of differently-coloured boards, while an
image of the Madonna, her features a web of wood
and cement, overlooks reception.
The other feature that stands out at
Celenit is the use of the phrase ‘ecobiocompatibilty.’
If decorative acoustic boards were the first step to
surviving the downturn, then this term may define
the next stage of Celenit’s development, whatever the
economic conditions.
WWCB have been around since the 1900s
and are simply a mixture of wood, OPC and oc-
casionally binders such as calcium carbonate or
magnesite. It’s hardly a stretch to market them as
a natural product - particularly if you add in com-
ponents like solar panels and sustainably-grown
wood. Celenit, alongside other prominent European
manufacturers is careful to emphasise this aspect of
its products.
Celenit - Ahead of the curve
For the most part it seems that Celenit is ahead of
the curve. The market for eco-friendly construc-
tion and acoustic boards might be well developed
in Scandanavia, where they’re used regularly in the
construction of pubic buildings, but even Domenico
admits that the additional cost of sourcing wood
Above: Piles of PEFC spruce ready for processing into wood wool for Celenit’sWWCB.
36 GlobalCementMagazineJanuary2014 www.GlobalCement.com
WWCB certification
The industry standards for production of WWCB
arespecifiedbyandregulatedunderEN13168:2012.
Boards can be further certified with a CE marking
system, System 1 or System 3.
System 3 certification involves initial board
testing at a certified laboratory, after which tests
are carried out either directly by the manufacturer
or a third party contracted by them, with the onus
for testing and regulation placed entirely on the
board’s producer. In contrast, the requirements for
System 1 certification are more stringent. Boards
produced within EN 13168 guidelines are tested by
and subjected to random checks by an independent
registered laboratory.
Celenit has recently moved from System 3 to
System 1. Domenico explains that, “For our cus-
tomers this is a better guarantee of the standard of
production and quality.”
Above: External view of Celenit’s highly-automatedWWCB line.

4. from PEFC forests isn’t yet offset by the demand for
sustainable products in all markets. Regardless of the
financial viability, Celenit is keen to position itself as a
natural producer and would prefer to cut other costs
than forego the use of PEFC wood. Celenit is careful
to highlight the low lifecycle analysis (LCA) ratings
awarded to its production methods.
Heading to sustainable WWCB production
The fact that multiple producers are gearing up for a
market driven by sustainability does seem to imply
that, at some point in the next few years, sustainable
WWCB production will become the driving force in
the global market. With lower and lower clinker fac-
tors and ever-reducing embodied CO2 emissions, the
cement used will have an increasing contribution to
the sustainability claims of WWCB manufacturers.
For the moment, however, it seems more likely that
the longer the financial crisis continues, the more
difficult each producer will find it to survive, regard-
less of their ‘eco stance.’
Companies like Celenit seem ideally placed for
survival. While larger companies are consolidating
multiple production sites, smaller companies such
as Celenit have been able to diversify production
on their single sites to meet the needs of a changing
market. The versatility of their products has enabled
each to hold their own on the global stage, a trend
which looks set to continue. This is demonstrated
by the fact that Domenico can still cite Spain as
Celenit’s second-largest WWCB market after Italy,
despite that country’s reduced construction industry.
Celenit’s plans for the more immediate future?
“We would like to increase our presence in the UK as
well as throughout Europe,” says Domenico.
GLOBAL CEMENT: PLANT VISIT
www.GlobalCement.com GlobalCementMagazineJanuary2014 37
The answer, at least for Celenit, has
been a big push into new markets.
Above left: The Eltomation
CVS-16 produces wood wool.
Above: The wood wool is mixed
with the cement prior to use.
Below left: The collection of
sawdust, a by-product of the
wood wool shredding process.
Below: WWCB hardening in
the moulds.