The salt solution helps to bind the magnesite cement to the woodfibres. If the salt solution is less the resultant board will be weak and will not pass QA. If the salt is more it remains unreacted in the board and hence when such boards are installed in buildings it attracts moisture from the atmosphere, begins to ‘sweat’, turns acidic and attacks the very framework on which the board is installed – hence dangerous!

At Anutone’s Ekcel plant, the salt solution is prepared with greatest care ensuring the right specific gravity. It is repetitively decanted to ensure purity and conforms to IS 2307. The woodfibres go through a process of pre-soak, soak and post-soak to ensure the optimum capture of salt solution. The final product contains <3.5% as per EN 13168. This ensures no adverse effects to the building structures where the product is installed.

EN 824 – Determination of squareness
This standard specifies the equipment and procedures for determining the deviation from squareness of length, width and thickness of full-size products. Though meant for square
edges, it can be adapted for profiled edges too.

The principle is to apply a metal square to the product edges, measure the deviation between one limb of the metal square and the product’s edges. The apparatus includes a flat surface, metal tape graduated in 0.5mm and a metal square with 500mm limbs.

The test specimen is a full-size product conditioned to 23oC and 50RH. It is laid on the flat surface and measured for deviation from squareness first of the length and width edges, and then of the thickness edge.