Plywood

Plywood is a manufactured wood panel made from thin sheets of wood veneer. It is one of the most widely used wood products. It is flexible, inexpensive, workable, re-usable, and can usually be locally manufactured. Plywood is used instead of plain wood because of its resistance to cracking, shrinkage, splitting, and twisting/warping, and its general high degree of strength. Plywood layers (called veneers) are glued together with adjacent plies having their wood grain at right angles to each other to form a composite material. Cross-graining has several important benefits: it reduces the tendency of wood to split when nailed at the edges, it reduces expansion and shrinkage equating to improved dimensional stability, and it makes the strength of the panel consistent across both directions. There are usually an odd number of plies so that the sheet is balancedthis reduces warping. Because of the way plywood is bonded (with grains running against one another and with an odd number of composite parts) it is very hard to bend it perpendicular to the grain direction. Plywood was invented around 3400 B.C. by the Ancient Mesopotamians, who attached several thinner layers of wood together to make one thick layer. They originally did this during a shortage of quality wood, gluing very thin layers of quality wood over lesser-quality wood. Modern plywood was invented [by Immanuel Nobel, father of Alfred Nobel. Nobel realized that several thinner layers of wood bonded together would be stronger than one single thick layer of wood, and invented the rotary lathe used in plywood manufacturing.

Black Board
Blackboard is a wood based panel, made up of a core of softwood strips glued together. The strips may be up to about 28mm wide and are placed edge to edge and sandwiched between veneers of softwood, hardwood or thin MDF or particleboard, glued under high pressure. The internal strips are generally made of light weight poplar wood or spruce. Blackboard is used to make doors, tables, shelves, paneling and partition walls. It is normally used for interior usages, due to the type of glues used. To achieve maximum strength, it is important to ensure that the core runs lengthways. Blackboard (also called lumber core) has very good screw holding and can be considered as solid wood; it has a good resistance to warping. Blackboard panels are produced in 3-layers, with one veneer sheet (or thin MDF or particleboard) covering each side, or 5layers with two veneer sheets per side for better stability. Most common sizes in blackboard are: 2070x5200mm (German size), 1850x3660mm (Italian size), and 1220x2440mm (Chinese size). Available thicknesses are between 13mm and 60mm. Blackboard may be purchased with a variety of applied finishes such as wood veneers, melamine paper and plastic laminate surfaces.

For further information, visit the site of Are span Brocca, the leading Italian manufacturer of blackboard

Chip Board Chipboard is a man-made material that comes in a variety of forms and is used in just as many ways. Chipboard is also referred to as chip board, paperboard and particleboard. It is generally made from reclaimed or recycled paper. Chipboard is made by gluing layers and fragments of recycled paper together to form a larger piece of material. The adhesive is applied using heat and pressure. This insures the material becomes rigid and feels smooth to the touch. The thickness of the chipboard ranges from very thin to very thick. Chipboard is inexpensive and relatively easy to produce and use. Thin chipboard is used in manufacturing product packaging. Cereal boxes are an example of this chipboard. Slightly thicker chipboard is used as the backing for notepads, book construction and shirt boxes. Thicker, more substantial chipboard is used for flooring and counter tops. This chipboard is made from bonding small pieces of wood together instead of the thinner paper option. Chipboard can also be covered in a veneer or laminate and used to make

furniture. Scrapbooking and crafting have embraced chipboard in recent years also. The chipboard used by scrap bookers is able to be painted, inked, cut and glued. Since the chipboard is easily embellished, it is also used to make alphabet letters, die-cuts and shapes.

Lamin Board
Short Description gaboon-like facing veneer Description A strip-core joinery board with facing of gabon-like veneer. The central core consists of 5mm wide strips with vertically arranged growth rings, individually interlocked. This results in a particularly even surface and high material stability. Alternative facing materials include thin layers of MDF or chipboard. Applications - Furniture - Shop fitting - Interior finishing - Office - Wall cladding - Ship interiors

- Theater stages - Motor manufacture Lamin board- is made up of thin strips of wood glued together and faced with one or more veneer. The strips of wood are more than 12.5mm wide. It is thus superior to block board and batter board.

Batten Board A batten is a thin strip of solid material, typically made from wood, plastic or metal. Battens are used in building construction and various other fields as both structural and purely cosmetic elements. In the steel industry, battens may also be referred to as "top hats", in reference to the profile of the metal. Battens are used in building construction in various ways: Roofing battens are used to provide the fixing point for roofing sheet or roof tiles. The orientation and spacing of the battens depend on the type of roof. Battens may be oriented at right angles to the trusses or rafters of a roof like purlins. They may be parallel to the slope of the roof, as on a batten-seam roof, where the battens cover seams in the roofing material and are themselves covered by metal caps. Some roofs may use a grid of battens in both directions, known as a counter-batten system. Batten trim or batten molding is a thin strip of trim, typically with a rectangular cross-section, used to cover seams between panels of exterior siding or interior paneling. Board-and-batten siding is an exterior treatment of vertical boards with battens covering the seams.

Battens are used for solid wall insulation. Regularly spaced battens are fitted to the wall, the spaces between them filled with insulation, and plasterboard or drywall screwed to the battens. This method is no longer the most popular, as rigid insulation sheets give better insulation (with battens bridging the insulation) and take less time to fit. In sailing, battens are long, thin strips (usually fiberglass or some similar material nowadays, but historically wooden) used to support the roach of a sail. They are also used on tall ships to form the ladders up the shrouds in a fashion similar to ratlines. They are also used to help secure tarpaulins over hatches, thus giving rise to the common phrase "batten down the hatches!", meaning to secure the hatches against an approaching storm. Used by analogy in nonsailing contexts, it means to prepare to weather a coming storm, whether that storm is metaphorical or real. In cabinetry, battens may be used to strengthen panels made up of multiple boards, as in a batten door, or to cover joins.

Hard Board
Hardboard, also called high-density fiberboard (HDF), not to be confused with 'hardwood', is a type of fiberboard, which is an engineered wood product. It is similar to particle board and medium-density fiberboard, but is denser and much stronger and harder because it is made out of exploded wood fibers that have been highly compressed. Consequently, the density of hardboard is 31 lbs. or more per cubic foot (500 kg/m) and is usually about 50-65 lbs. per cubic foot (800-1040 kg/m). It differs from particle board in that the bonding of the wood fibers requires no additional materials, although resin is often added. Unlike particle board, it will not split or crack. It is used in construction and furniture. Hardboard is produced in either a wet or dry process. The wet process leaves only one smooth side while the dry processed hardboard is smooth on both sides.

A product resembling hardboard was first made in England in 1898 by hot pressing waste paper.] In the 1900s, fiber building board of relatively low density was manufactured in Canada. In the early 1920s, improved methods of compressing wet wood pulp at high temperatures resulted in a higher density product. Unlike solid wood, hardboard is very homogeneous with no grain. A wood veneer can be glued onto it to give the appearance of solid wood. Other overlays include Formica, laminated papers, ceramics, and vinyl. It has many uses, such as a substrate. It is used in construction, flooring, furniture, appliances, automobiles and cabinetry, and is popular among acrylic and oil painters as a painting surface due to its economical price (though it must

be coated with gesso or canvas before use). Hardboard has often been used as the surface material in clipboards, especially older models. It is also used as the final layer in many skateboard ramps and the half-pipe. Tempered hardboard is hardboard that has been coated with a thin film of linseed oil and then baked; this gives it more water resistance, impact resistance, hardness, rigidity and tensile strength. An earlier tempering process involved immersing the board in linseed oil or Tung oil until it was 5 to 6 percent saturated, and heating to 170 C (340 F). Tempered hardboard is used in construction siding.

Perforated hardboard Perforated hardboard, also called pegboard, is tempered hardboard that has a uniform array of 1/8" or 1/4" holes in it, into which tool-hanging hooks or store fixtures can be placed.

Fiber Board

Fiberboard is a type of engineered wood product that is made out of wood fibers. Types of fiberboard (in order of increasing density) include particle board, medium-density fiberboard, and hardboard. Fiberboard is sometimes used as a synonym for particle board, but particle board usually refers to low-density fiberboard. Plywood is not a type of fiberboard, as it is made of thin sheets of wood, not wood fibers or particles. Fiberboard, particularly medium-density fiberboard (MDF), is heavily used in the furniture industry. For pieces that will be visible, a veneer of wood is often glued onto fiberboard to give it the appearance of conventional wood. Fiberboard is also used in the auto industry to create free-form shapes such as dashboards, rear parcel shelves, and inner door shells. These pieces are usually covered with a skin, foil, or fabric such as cloth, suede, leather, or polyvinyl chloride.

Urea-formaldehyde (UF) resins are dominantly used in the medium density fiberboard (MDF) industry because of their low cost and fast curing characteristics. However, pressures on the use of UF resins are mounting steadily due to potential problems associated with formaldehyde emission. On the other hand, phenol-formaldehyde (PF) resins are more durable and do not emit formaldehyde after cure. But the Industry has traditionally shied away from using PF resins due primarily to their higher cost and much slower curing rate than UF resins. However, the press times PF-bonded fiberboard can be substantially reduced by manipulating the fiber mat temperatures, molecular weight distribution of PF resins and pressing parameters. As a result, the press times for PF-bonded fiberboard can be made comparable to those for UF-bonded fiberboard. Also, the resin content required for PF-bonded fiberboard is less than 5% to achieve a good board quickly. This is considerably lower than that required for UFbonded fiberboard. Certain types of fiberboard can be considered "green" building products. Consisting of bio-based, secondary raw materials (wood chip or sugarcane fibers) recovered from within 100 miles (160 km) of manufacturing facilities, the binding agent used in this type of fiberboard is an all-natural product, consisting of vegetable starch containing no added formaldehydes. Fiberboard, classified by ASTM C208, Standard Specification for Cellulosic Fiber Insulating Board, has many benefits and is used in residential and commercial construction. Different uses and applications include:

sound proofing/deadening, structural sheathing, low-slope roofing, sound deadening flooring underlayment,

RSI Direct, A bi-weekly e-newsletter covering the roofing, siding and insulation industries, promotes the use of fiberboard as a cover board in roof systems: High density coated wood fiber is an ideal cover board, and the industry apparently agrees. More than two billion square feet of this product have already been installed in the U.S. roofing market. In terms of cost and availability, wood fiber is hard to beat.