Manufacturing in Ireland

Gypsum Industries have been manufacturing in Ireland since 1936, with Gypsum rock mined from a deposit at Knocknacran, Co.Monaghan. From this raw material, an extensive range of plasterboards and plasters are manufactured at our production facility at Kingscourt, Co. Cavan.

 

 

 

Plaster Mill

 

In the Plaster Mill at Kingscourt, the rock mined at Knocknacran is processed through a third and fourth stage of crushing and grinding. This is then reduced to a very fine product prior to being calcined by heating, where-upon a chemical change takes place which converts the rock from a dihydrate to a hemi-hydrate form - commonly called "Stucco".

 

Some of this stucco is passed through a further grinding process to make it suitable as the basic material for the manufacture of undercoat and finish coat internal building plasters.

Specific ingredients are then added to produce the different types of building plasters, which are packed in special 25 kg paper sacks and palletised, ready for distribution throughout the country.

 

Plasterboard Plant

 

Some of the stucco produced by calcination in the Plaster Mill is also transferred to the plasterboard manufacturing plant.

 

There the stucco is mixed to a slurry with additional ingredients and is poured between continuous running sheets of upper and lower heavy (grey/ivory) paperliner and induced to set as the "sandwich" travels along conveyor belts.

 

The product sets sufficiently to allow it to be cut to different lengths to meet the very specific needs of our customers and these undried boards are grouped and returned automatically through a multi-deck, multi-width dryer.