West Fraser’s portfolio of OSB products, all of which are net carbon negative, is one of the most popular in the construction, architecture, specification and interior design industries and comprises SterlingOSB Zero 3, SterlingOSB Zero Tongue and Groove, SterlingOSB Zero Fire Solutions and SterlingOSB Zero StrongFix.
All are variants of the precision-engineered OSB3 board which is BBA-approved and designed for humid conditions.
The board contains zero added formaldehyde and is unique in the market by being the only ZAF OSB manufactured in the UK.
Produced in Scotland from forest thinnings taken from sustainably managed forests, the board is certified according to the guidelines of the FSC or PEFC.
Unlike traditional oriented strand board (OSB) containing urea-formaldehyde (UF) or melamine-urea-formaldehyde (MUF) binders, the SterlingOSB Zero family from West Fraser uses a methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (poly-urethane MDI) resin to bind the thousands of strands that make up each board. SterlingOSB Zero is even more environmentally-friendly to produce than its predecessors.
The pMDI binder cures at a lower temperature than UF/MUF resins so less heat energy is consumed during manufacture. It is also safer to produce since pMDI resin uses water as a catalyst in the curing process; UF/MUF resins need the addition of ammonium nitrate – an explosive chemical – to harden.
The benefits of specifying West Fraser panels are numerous, of course! Relative price stability is guaranteed, and transport costs are lower because the product doesn’t have to travel far which, in turn, leads to benefits for the environment.
