Abstract
Poplar Oriented Strand Board (OSB) has been produced since 2012 in Italy, and is well-established on the market. Nonetheless, some doubts have recently emerged about the raw material supply due to the trend towards reduction in plantations. Sweet chestnut is widespread in Italy, where its woodlands cover around 800,000 ha, mainly based on coppice. Partly or entirely replacing poplar with sweet chestnut would result in a new OSB with relevant perspectives for the national forest-wood sector, also interesting other European countries where sweet chestnut is widespread. The present study investigates the properties of OSB manufactured at an industrial scale with different shares of poplar and sweet chestnut wood (respectively, 50–50%, 40–60%, and 100% in weight). Density, internal bond, bending strength, modulus of elasticity and swelling were tested according to EN 300. Overall, the results indicate that sweet chestnut OSB/2 (for load-bearing use in dry conditions) can be manufactured through the process currently used for manufacturing poplar OSB, a key aspect in terms of industrial feasibility. Overall, specific adjustments in the process (concerning pressures applied, gluing system and strand cutting optimization) could make the above boards compliant with the requirements of OSB/3 (for load-bearing use in humid conditions).
Highlights
Sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) covers more than 2.5 million ha of forest in Europe, mostly in France and Italy followed by Spain, Portugal and Switzerland [1]
The present study investigates the properties of Oriented Strand Board (OSB) manufactured at an industrial scale with different shares of poplar and sweet chestnut wood
The results indicate that sweet chestnut OSB/2 can be manufactured through the process currently used for manufacturing poplar
Summary
Sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) covers more than 2.5 million ha of forest in Europe, mostly in France and Italy followed by Spain, Portugal and Switzerland [1]. The average quality of the Italian sweet chestnut wooden assortments is generally recognized as medium to low. This is due to several factors, one of the most relevant being the occurrence of ring shake that, especially for some provenances, strongly limits the yield and many industrial uses [5]. Most of the Italian sweet chestnut woodlands are coppice stands, whose harvestable timber is limited in size and quality [9]. Italian sweet chestnut wood is mainly destined to be used for low-added-value applications such as tannin extraction and poles for fencing, vineyards and orchards. The higher quality assortments, when available, are used as Forests 2020, 11, 496; doi:10.3390/f11050496 www.mdpi.com/journal/forests
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