Match Facts:
- Diamond is the largest wooden match manufacturer in the United States.
- Diamond produces 12 billion matches each year.
- A match machine at Diamond can make more than one million matches per hour.
Natural Resource Management
- Wood is harvested from land that is managed for sustainability. Harvests improve the future forest values such as timber, water, and wildlife, as opposed to those that convert forestland to industrial, urban or agricultural use.
- Progressive forest management practices are insured. Land management programs are in place that support the monitoring, research, education, investment, protection and collaboration between public and private sectors.
- Harvests are performed by loggers capable of implementing forestry practices. Loggers must be aware and knowledgeable about the value of silviculture, visual quality, water quality, forest roads, harvest practices, forest recreation, regeneration, soils and other disciplines.
The Process
Preparing the wood:
Aspen logs are cut into 25 inch long blocks. These blocks are rotary veneered into long flat sheets of wood about one-eighth inch thick, then chopped into sticks called splints.
Washed and Waxed:
Splints are soaked in a vat of a brine solution, and then slowly dried. The brine solution prevents “after-glow” when the burning match stick is extinguished.
The splints are dried, polished, and then placed in thousands of slots on narrow plates to be dipped in hot wax, where a wet paste of chemicals is applied to the splint head.
Air Dried and Packaged:
Newly dipped matches will gradually dry in an hour. They are then packaged in boxes, wrapped and shipped.
Production and Use
A match machine at Diamond can make more than one million matches per hour. Diamond match machines are used to produce other wood products as well. Diamond makes more than 12 billion matches a year of the more than 500 billion that are used annually in the United States.
Chemical Pastes Makes Match Safe
There are more than twenty chemicals used to make a match. These chemicals fall into four classes that comprise the match head: Binder, Fuel, Oxidizing Agent and Dilutants.
- Binder - glue made from recycled materials binds the match head together and holds it to the stick.
- Fuel - the main fuel is sulfur, although other ingredients do burn.
- Oxidizer - potassium chlorate provides oxygen to make the match burn strongly under many conditions.
- Dilutants - these modify the burning rate so that the oxidizer and fuel do not react too violently. They also give the head added bulk. We use items like starch and finely ground sand.
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