Plywood has excellent physical-mechanical properties and it is widely used in construction, transport, furniture and other industries. Plywood is made of veneers and usually the direction of grains adjacent layers is perpendicular to each other. In some cases where special mechanical properties are required the plywood lay-up could be different with aim to improve mechanical properties for special application.
Bending properties of two different lay-ups, where the outer part veneers have the same grain direction, are studied in this paper. The tests have been carried out according to the European standards EN 310 and EN 789.
The results show that bending properties of plywood with traditional lay-up are more homogenous in comparison to plywood with outer veneer grain in the same direction. Plywood with special lay-up and thickness of 28mm in stronger direction has the same strength capacity as 35mm thick plywood with ordinary lay-up. It shows possibility to reduce plywood construction weight by 5kg ·m-2 or 20% in some applications.
Keywords: wood-based panels, strength, modulus of elasticity, birch
Authors
Zudrags K.
Department of Wood Processing, Latvian University of Agriculture, Jelgava
Ludvigsone-Rudzite S.
Department of Wood Processing, Latvian University of Agriculture, Jelgava
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