Wood and Plywood Quality Characterization of New and Alternate Species Amenable for Composite Wood Production

Abstract

India is one of the robust consumers of engineered wood products and the raw material demand for engineered wood production is increasing at an alarming rate. Currently the plywood industries in the country depends only on few species and demands screening of alternate and species amenable for plywood production. Therefore studies were conducted to characterize the physical and mechanical properties of eight different tree species viz., Toona ciliata, Chukrasia tabularis, Acacia hybrid, Neolamarckia cadamba, Acrocarpus fraxinifolius, Swietenia macrophylla, Casuarina equisetifolia and Mitragyna parvifolia which are potential tree components in Agroforestry system. The physical properties like density exhibited wider variation between the species. In general, all species exhibited medium to high density values. The studies on veneer recovery indicated that barring Mitragyna parvifolia, all other species exhibited more than 50% veneer recovery and extend greater scope of adoption. Similarly the veneer quality exhibited wide differences and several species registered face veneer quality. The analysis of mechanical properties of plywood made out of all eight species indicated that the Modulus of Elasticity (MOE) was well within the acceptable range and the Modulus of Rupture (MOR) was on higher side which indicated that these species could play a vital role in manufacture of medium to high density plywood.