The world's first large-scale industrial production plant for lightweight boards has been in operation since 2006 at the Egger plant in St. Johann, Austria. The plant, provided by Siempelkamp Handling Systems (SHS), has a daily capacity of 1000m³ (35,300 cu. ft.) of 5610x2070 mm (18.4 ft. x 6.79 ft.) boards of its signature brand, Eurolight®.

SHS was the groundbreaker in developing the production machinery and technology and, with an investment of 25 million euros, Egger became a pioneer in the market, launching Eurolight at the ZOW 2006 fair. 

Lightweight board, lightboard, honeycomb board - whatever the name, it’s a product that offers the lightest possible weight while keeping the other positive properties of traditional composite panels - dimensional stability, smooth surface and defined finished size. Lightboard allows certain applications such as interior doors or wall and ceiling linings that were out of the question with traditional panels due to their weight.

The breakthrough was the honeycomb panel, consisting of two thin wooden surface layers and a honeycomb core made of cardboard. It provides a compact, stable and light design without compromising the surface finishing.

The hexagonal honeycomb structure of the core material is one of nature’s basic design principles. It combines minimal material and energy requirements with the highest possible stability.

Originally, a glued wooden frame around all four edges of the board kept all board components together. This simple, effective board-with-frame principle had one major disadvantage: it was only suitable for specific components with fixed dimensions, such as small series production in the furniture industry or for standard dimensions of interior doors. Other disadvantages were a high organizational work effort and considerable pre-production costs. Industrial mass production with variable finished sizes was not yet possible.

In this scenario, with a view to saving material and costs and an ongoing quest for lighter weight, Siempelkamp engineers rediscovered the honeycomb panel and further developed it with today’s technological capabilities. The result is a frameless lightweight panel and a technical revolution. 

Siempelkamp Handling Systems (SHS) in Wolfratshausen, Germany, had always been closely involved in the design of new Siempelkamp lines for the panel products industry, so the weight factor and the optimization of resources were ongoing important issues.