Properties of plywood from eucalyptus pellita, neolamarckia cadamba and paraserianthes falcataria with different layer and species arrangement / Muhammad Fitri Sa'ad

Forest plantation species can be an alternative ways to combat the shortage of raw material for plywood manufacturing. A study on Eucalyptus pellita, Neolamarckia cadamba and Paraserianthes falcataria wood was conducted. This study investigated on basic wood properties and mechanical properties of plywood made from three fast growing species for five and seven layers veneer with different species arrangement using melamine urea formaldehyde glue. The anatomical, physical, chemical and veneer properties are determined based on TAPPI standards. Meanwhile bending on parallel and perpendicular, bonding shear and panel shear properties of the plywood were tested according to Japanese Agricultural Standard for Plywood. From this study, the statistical analysis revealed that species and tree portion were found significantly affect the anatomical, physical, chemical and veneer properties. In the manufacture of plywood, variable of layer and species arrangement were found to effect mechanical properties. Correlation of anatomical, physical, chemical and veneer properties had less association with board properties. It was proven that Eucalyptus pellita, Neolamarckia cadamba and Paraserianthes falcataria is suitable to use as raw material in manufacturing of plywood that meets the Japanese Agriculture Standard requirement. This study shows that these three species had a big potential to be an alternative wood material for Malaysian plywood industry thus can reduce independency of wood species from virgin forest.