Plywood Production Research Articles

Processing and Exporting Raw Materials: A Computable General Equilibrium Analysis of the Indonesian Log and Plywood Industries

ABSTRACT A computable general equilibrium (CGE) model is constructed for the Indonesian economy. The CGE model searches for the optimal log and plywood export taxes; simulates resource allocation and rates of return to sectoral fixed factors of production under different combinations of export taxes and constraints; estimates the welfare costs of reducing log production or increasing plywood production to a given target; and demonstrates numerically how the hardwood log exporting country should respond to a higher foreign plywood import tariff Several policy implications are drawn and applied to other cases of raw material processing and trade.

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Nowadays, the role of timber industry in Malaysia becomes more important. The rapid growth of timber industry can be illustrated by the increase of the production level of plywood and veneer. An annual increase of plywood production since 1960 to 1988 was 1,519 % The increase of plywood production is facing a number of problems such as decreasing in supply of logs, furher processing of log is still undeveloped, competition from non wood materials such as steel, concrete, alumunium and plastic,. Also price competition with competitor countries such as Indonesia and Philippine. The objectives of this paper is to study the timber industry development, especially plywood industry and economic factors which influenced Malaysia's plywood price where. a multiple regression analysis was used to analyze the plywood price. The results of the analysis shows that export price of plywood from the competitor countries especially indonesia and Philippines has influenced very significantly to the price fluctuation of Malaysia plywood. It explained up to 88 % of the price fluctuations. the remaining 12 % is explained by some other factors. In other words, the competitions price is the most prominant factor in determining the price fluctuation of Malaysian plywood.

Lignin-Phenol-Formaldehyde resins as adhesives in the production of plywood

This paper reports on plywood glued by adhesives based on lignin-phenol-formaldehyde resins. Resin was obtained by polycondensation of sulphate lignin with phenol and formaldehyde in alkali medium. Sulphate lignin was separated from black liquor obtained by delignification of poplar and willow wood.

Species Substitution and Tropical Log Imports by Japan

Abstract Tropical rainforests contain many "lesser known species" that have not achieved widespread acceptance in international timber markets. This paper provides a quantitative analysis of the effects on tropical log demand of two economic factors: relative prices and technical change. A multi-output cost function framework is developed to analyze tropical log demand as derived from the production of plywood and sawnwood. Data analyzed are Japanese imports of dipterocarp and nondipterocarp logs (proxies for well- and lesser known species, respectively) from the South Seas during 1970-87. The econometric results indicate that the composition (dipterocarp vs. nondipterocarp) of tropical log imports was not significantly influenced by either relative prices or technical change during the period analyzed. For. Sci. 36(3):657-664.

Studies on the Production of Preservative-Treated Plywood(1)

Preservative effectiveness of candidate fungicides for glue-line treatment was investigated using 4.0-and 5.6 thick lauan plywoods glued with melamin-urea formaldehyde resin. Non-weathered ply-woods treated with the following three fungicides were able to inhibit effectively the decay by a brown rot fungus Tyromyces palustris Murr. at active ingredient retentions shown in the parentheses : 4-chlorophenyl-3'-iodopropagylformal (0.6kg/m3 ), 3-ethoxycarbonyloxy-1-bromo-1, 2-diiodopro-pene (1.0kg/m3), and mixture of tributyltinphthalate and potassium iodide (0.24kg/m3+0.48kg/m3). Higher retentions of these fungicides were necessary to inhibit the decay by a white rot fungus Coriolus versicolor Quél. The enhancement of preservative effectiveness was recognized oftenly in any fungicide-treated plywoods after 3-month exposure to 60°C, followed by its decent after longer term exposure. Such a enhancement was found more oftenly in case of 90 repetitions of wet (6 hrs water soaking) and dry (60°C for 18 hrs) cycling than in 30 repetitions. It was probable that the amount of fungicides diffusing into veneer wood from resin adhesive was more than that of fungicide losses by liberating or leaching during a limited term exposure to 60°C.From the results with preservative effectiveness after several weathering treatments, the first and second organic iodo compounds described above are considered to be the most promissing fungicide for glue-line treatment and the third organic tin compound is the next. However, improvement of curing condition should be necessary to enlarge the fungicide distribution into veneer wood of treated plywood.

Application of Mathematical Programming to the Plywood Design and Manufacturing Problem

Plywood manufacture includes two fundamental stages. The first is to peel or separate logs into veneer sheets of different thicknesses. The second is to assemble veneer sheets into finished plywood products. At the first stage a decision must be made as to the number of different veneer thicknesses to be peeled and what these thicknesses should be. At the second stage, choices must be made as to how these veneers will be assembled into final products to meet certain constraints while minimizing wood loss. These decisions present a fundamental management dilemma. Costs of peeling, drying, storage, handling, etc. can be reduced by decreasing the number of veneer thicknesses peeled. However, a reduced set of thickness options may make it infeasible to produce the variety of products demanded by the market or increase wood loss by requiring less efficient selection of thicknesses for assembly. In this paper the joint problem of veneer choice and plywood construction is formulated as a nonlinear integer programming problem. A relatively simple optimal solution procedure is developed that exploits special problem structure. This procedure is examined on data from a British Columbia plywood mill. Restricted to the existing set of veneer thicknesses and plywood designs used by that mill, the procedure generated a solution that reduced wood loss by 79 percent, thereby increasing net revenue by 6.86 percent. Additional experiments were performed that examined the consequences of changing the number of veneer thicknesses used. Extensions are discussed that permit the consideration of more than one wood species.

An Optimization-Based Decision Support System for a Product Mix Problem

This paper describes the development and implementation of a plywood product mix model for Ponderosa Industrial, a medium-sized company that supplies 25% of the plywood in Mexico. A unique modeling and optimization system has been used that has resulted in more active participation of management in the modeling process. The paper focuses on the benefits of using optimization as well as the role of the optimization system.

Western and Southern Lumber and Plywood Capacity—Approaching Stability?

Abstract A lumber and plywood capacity simulation model is derived from U.S. Forest Service data. Western and southern lumber and plywood capacity changes are responsive to gross profit margins specific to the individual product and region. Southern lumber production is forecast to increase in both absolute and relative terms through the 1980s while western production falls to some 20 percent of total U.S. demand (from 23 percent in 1976). Western plywood production capacity is forecast to continue its decline through the 1980s while southern capacity increases. Southern stumpage prices could double from 1978 levels in constant dollar terms, and the demand for saw-timber-sized stumpage in the South may be one-third to two-thirds higher by 1990.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENT INDUSTRY IN HAMAMATSU

Hamamatsu industrial region which are located in the western part of Shizuoka Prefecture is an old industrial region in the Tokai region. The most important industries of the region are cotton textile, musical instrument and transportation machinery and they are called big-three industries in this region. And the others are fabricated metal, machine tool, timber, dying and food industries. These industries have never developed separately at all, but they have developed in close relationship with each other, and the preceding industry in this region has functioned as leading industry for the birth of new one. The output of the musical instruments in the Hamamatsu region now accounts for 99.5% of piano production and about 80% of organ production in Japan, and such exclusive production of musical instruments in the Hamamatsu region is not accidental even at all, but the localization was sustained by the geographical conditions and the industrial context of the region. The manufacturing of musical instruments in Hamamatsu was started by Torakusu Yamaha. He was born in Wakayama, became a repairman of medical appliances and stayed in Hamamatsu by chance. When he established Yamaha Organ Company in 1888 and began to make organs, there were several favorable conditions for him in Hamamatsu, especially the capitals and the techniques. The capitals offered to him by the entrepreneurs in Hamamatsu were those accumulated in this region through the tea and cotton texitile manufac Luring from the Feudal Days and among the techniques offered were those of the ingravers in Hamamatsu, and of the ship carpenters in Kakezuka, the old harbour of the Hamamatsu clan at the mouth of River Tenryu. Torakushu Yamaha established the Nippon Gakki Company in 1897 and began the production of pianos in 1900. Koichi Kawai who was an engineer, a inventor of piano action and also a head of the piano action in Nippon Gakki Co. established Kawai Gakki Company in 1927 and since then the production of musical instruments in Hamamatsu has developed. After the Second World War, the new factories of musical instruments have increased year by year. They reached 32 factories in 1961 (16 in 1950), and they produced mainly pianos. The special features of the production after the War are the increase of parts-making works of small scale and piano factories. Nippon Gakki and Kawai Gakki also developed in close connection with such parts-making works. The plywood is very important material for the production of organ and piano, and plywood factory was already established in the Hamamatsu region in 1908 by Nippon Gakki. The facilities and the techniques of plywood production has given birth to the woody propeller production in 1921 and this has once more given birth to the metallic propeller production since 1931. These propeller industry by Nippon Gakki has not only become the core of the munition industry in Hamamatsu during the Second World War, but also the foundation of the transportation machinery industry with main production of motor bicycles and moter boats after the War.

Climatic Limitations for Tree Growth Potential in Southern Forests

CLIMATIC LIMITATIONS FOR TREE GROWTH POTENTIAL IN SOUTHERN FORESTS Chelvadurai Manogaran* The role of the southern United States as a supplier of forest products will have to be even greater in the future than at present although this region possesses the most rapidly growing trees in the nation. Pines form the predominant part of the pulpwood, plywood, and lumber production of the southern states. The forest resources of the South produce more than 63 percent of the nation's plywood and about 17 percent of the United States' total plywood production. (1) A 50 percent increase in southern pine lumber production is expected as a result of the urgent need for the construction of 26 million houses during the next eight years. (2) If forest production is not increased beyond the present level, harvest will catch up with growth by 1990. Although field experiments relating to the role of irrigation in forestry have yielded significant findings , the results have application limited to certain localities. These studies do not provide estimates of how much more growth would be realized on a regional scale if adequate moisture were made available to trees during the growing season. Potential growth of trees is not realized in many areas of the southern United States because of the prevalence of soil moisture deficits in summer; the effect of this environmental feature has been largely overlooked. The purpose of this paper is to develop a model of tree growth that estimates the depressing effect of drought. Potential growth might be estimated empirically if appropriate environmental factors were selected to predict tree growth. Such methods consider energy, moisture , and drought as factors of the environment that work together, and not independently as in a laboratory or controlled experiment, in promoting or retarding potential growth of trees. If the model predicts growth under specified conditions of soil moisture deficit, the same model could be utilized to estimate potential growth under conditions of no soil moisture deficit, which irrigation could assure, and naturally occurring moisture deficits. The additional growth, estimated as the difference between these conditions, is considered the quantity of growth that would result from the use of irrigation in forestry. A regional evaluation of additional growth resulting * Dr. Manogaran is assistant professor of geography at the University of WisconsinParkside in Kenosha. This paper was accepted for publication in March 1973. 72Southeastern Geographer from the use of irrigation in forestry is possible since the independent climatic data are available for the entire area where forests grow in the South. DERIVING A MODEL OF CLIMATE'S POWER FOR FOREST GROWTH. An equation which employs climatic variables and growth data is produced so that two kinds of projections can be made: 1) the growth under actual weather conditions which results from variable limitations due to moisture deficit; and 2) the potential growth that could occur if moisture deficit were prevented by irrigation. Data Utilized to Generate a Predictive Model. Diameter increments recorded during 1960 and 1961 on naturally occurring loblolly pines by Bassett and Moehring in southeast Arkansas and northeast Louisiana, respectively, are utilized to develop the model of tree growth. (3) (4) The pines were at maturity and varied in age from 30 to 41 years. Although the trees sampled by Bassett were homogenous with respect to age and species, the sample plots varied in stand density. The trees sampled by Moehring varied greatly with respect to age and stand density. The plots consisted of mixed stands of hardwoods and pines. The trees sampled in these two areas were combined to determine the extent to which the factors of climate explain the monthly growth of loblolly pines. One hundred seventy observations on the diameter growth of pines were utilized to generate the predictive model. The data on climate and growth were used to compute a sequence of multiple linear regression equations in a stepwise manner to identify the climatic variables that are most significantly correlated with tree growth. The readily available data on temperature and precipitation for the study areas were transformed into water budget parameters utilizing the water budget procedure developed by Thornthwaite. (5) Thornthwaite's water budget is an accounting of the continuous budget of energy's demand...

Some Industrial Applications of Linear Programming

Three examples of the applications of linear programming are given, drawn from the manufacture of plywood, the distribution of grain, and industrial fermentation. In each of these widely different industries there is a problem which can be treated quite precisely by a linear programming model. The quantities evaluated are in the first case, the plywood product mix with the maximum return; in the second case, the routings and transit credits for shipping grain with the minimum freight costs; and in the third case, the production schedule for the fermentation process which yields the minimum labour cost. In most cases, the results obtained could be extended to evaluate other factors, and in all cases the formulation of the problem in linear programming form led to a greater understanding of the industry concerned.

The Impact of Imports and Tariffs on the American Tuna Industry

THERE IS MUCH to be learned about the working of a free enterprise system by observing the adaptive behavior of firms in an industry threatened by foreign competition. It is the purpose of this paper to describe and analyze the effects of imports and tariffs on the market structure and competitive behavior of the American tuna industry. In recent years the American producers of watches, textiles, oil, plywood, dinnerware and other products have faced aggressive competition in the domestic market from low cost foreign producers. Much research has been devoted to the factors which determine the level of imports into the United States, but relatively little attention has been paid to the effects of imports and tariffs upon the organization and operation of domestic industries. This has been due, no doubt, to a tendency to treat industries as homogeneous entities. Actually, most industries consist of firms that rely on different sources of raw materials, serve different markets, and produce under different cost conditions. Imports can have markedly dissimilar effects on firms within the same industry. This is important from the standpoint of public policy because a tariff which purports to protect an industry against foreign competition may actually penalize some firms in the industry while benefiting others. The American tuna industry affords an excellent example of the impact which imports can have on the internal relationships within a domestic industry. From the beginning of commercial tuna fishing at the turn of the century until the early Fifties a set of institutional and competitive relationships developed between the different types of firms making up the industry which was well suited to the economic problems encountered in utilizing the tuna resources. An equilibrium was established between these firms and it was not seriously affected by tuna imports before World War II. However, since 1950 imports have risen to unprecedented heights, and firms within the industry have had to adapt to a new market situation. The tariff structure has offered greater protection to some types of firms than to others, and this has had a direct influence on the nature of changes which have occurred in the industry's market structure and competitive behavior. I

WOOD UTILIZATION PRACTICES AND TRENDS

A record expansion has taken place in our wood-using industries, during the years since the last war. Production of lumber has almost doubled, from 4½ billion to 8 billion board feet per year. The wood requirements of the pulp industry have expanded from 7 million to about 13 million cords per year, and we have seen veneer and plywood production almost tripled.This tremendous expansion is well-known to all foresters. It has been accompanied by better utilization practices in all of the wood-using industries —greater care in logging, higher recovery from the log in the sawmills, and better yields of pulp. Perhaps the most significant development of all has been the surge towards integration of the sawmill and pulpmill. I refer specifically to the use of sawmill residue for pulp.In 1945, only a few thousand cords of sawmill residue were converted to pulp chips. In 1955, a short 10 years later, over 1 million cords of sawmill residue were manufactured into pulp in British Columbia alone—a veritable industrial revolution having taken place. The importance of this development can best be assessed from two facts: 90 percent of all Kraft pulp produced in British Columbia is now made from chips from sawmill residue; and second, some 38 per cent of all the wood required for pulp in British Columbia now comes from sawmills from material formerly wasted. Over one million acres would be required to grow this amount of material on a perpetual basis.Progress has not been as rapid in Eastern Canada but, last year, 100,000 cords of sawmill material were converted to pulp. Assuming a rate of expansion equal to that of the past ten years, it is estimated that in 25 years, some 4 million cords of sawmill residue material will go, annually, to pulp and board mills. Some feel this estimate to be too conservative.This, perhaps, has been the greatest wood utilization stride of the century. It has been accompanied by other developments, also of great importance in their own right. The growth of the fibreboard industry is a good example, a development which has resulted in an increased use of species not suitable for some types of pulp.It is my firm belief that we can look forward to continued progress towards better and more complete utilization of our forest resources. Two developments, particularly, are bright on the horizon and will be discussed by members of this panel.The first, a relatively new development in Canada, is that of the wood particle board industry and the second, and one which will have far reaching results, is the increased use of hardwoods for pulp.

European Progress in Hot-Press Bonding of Plywood in the Last Ten Years

Abstract After describing briefly the production of plywood by hot-gluing from undried and dried veneers, the paper narrates the progress made in the last 15 years by European plywood manufacturers. This advance, says the author, is the result of the publication of articles in the technical and trade journals, cooperative research by press and glue manufacturers, shortage of raw material, and development of new bonding processes that required greater accuracy. Resin films are credited with improvements that have been made in equipment and accuracy of working. Column-type presses have been replaced by the so-called compensated or side-plate machines which can be guaranteed not to exceed a maximum deflection under full load of 0.0015 in. Heating of presses by steam has been replaced with hot water under high pressure, and an electric heating plate that was developed in 1925 is described. New applications of plywood to the production of tennis-racket frames, barrels, structural shapes, and straight blocks or curved material having from 45 to over 70 plies are commented upon briefly. Restrictions upon importation of certain hardwoods into some countries has led to development of multilaminated substitutes, which would not have been possible, in the author’s opinion, without the progress that has been made in hot-gluing. Development of cold-setting resin glues in the last four years is also commented upon, the point being stressed that different manufacturing methods and equipment must be used before the process will offer serious competition.

Casein Glue

Abstract Casein glue, made from soured skim milk, then dried, ground, and blended, has been in use in Germany for 50 years and in the United States for 30 years, but it was not until the World War period that it came into general commercial use. It was then that easy-to-use formulas of standard type were developed for the production of waterproof plywood in airplane construction. It now has general use in the woodworking industry. Casein glue in the past has relied upon harsh alkalis as a waterproofing agent. The casein glue of the future for veneering will be relatively only slightly alkaline, but will be high in water resistance through the addition to the dissolved glue of a chemical solution. The smaller user will have a glue that will carry overnight without loss of strength, will be quick setting and strong, and that will have sufficient water resistance for ordinary needs.

Hydraulic Presses for Plywood

Abstract The paper reviews the progress made in the clamping of plywood, especially in the last 35 years, when wooden hand screws and wooden-frame hand-screw presses were in general use. Improved hand clamps, improved hand-screw presses, and power-screw presses have their uses for certain classes of work and comparatively small output, and inverted-cylinder hydraulic presses are necessary for special methods and classes of work. Plywood is an artistic and utilitarian product with increasing appeal for both manufacturing and construction purposes. As the market for plywood products expands, new problems will necessitate further advances in press design. Plywood presses of the future may outdistance those of the present as much as the presses of the present demonstrate improvement over the old hand presses.