Table of Contents
Plywood
Plywood is a material fabricated from slim layers or plies of wood veneers that are joined together with adjacent layers having their wood grain pivoted up to 90 degrees to each other.
It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured boards that contain medium-density fibreboard (MDF) and particle board (chipboard).
Plywood is very popular in modern construction due to its low moisture content.
Types of Plywood
Various types of Plywood are as follows.
- Softwood Plywood
- Hardwood Plywood
- Tropical Plywood
- Aircraft Plywood
- Decorative Plywood
- Flexible Plywood
- Marine Plywood
Let us discuss all types of Plywood in detail.
1. Softwood Plywood
Softwood Plywood is also called spruce-pine-fir or SPF due to its spruce, pine, and fir. Softwood Plywood can be made from cedar (Cedrus sp), douglas fir (Pseudotsugan menziesii). If it is made from spruce (Picea sp) the prominent grains are coated by a system so that this type of plywood becomes more effective as hard as concrete and exploited for shuttering strands and construction.
2. Hardwood Plywood
It is made from angiosperms. This type of plywood is recognized by its firmness, hardness on the surface, inflexibility, resistance quality. This can be exploited to bear heavyweight.
3. Tropical Plywood
Different kinds of timbers of tropical areas are mixed together to make tropical plywood. However previously it was only collected from the Asian region, now also from Africa and America, it is collected. Tropical plywood is popular for some special qualities like Strength, Resistance, Density, Evenness, Inflexibility, Thickness, etc.
South Asia being a tropical region is the biggest manufactures of plywood. In countries like Japan, Thailand, Taiwan, Korea, Dubai, and even in America, England this kind of plywood is exploited. The severe impact of this kind of plywood is deforestation which is becoming a huge problem for some countries like Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia because these countries export plywood worldwide. Especially Malaysian plywood is called the Malaysian board in Bangladesh and is hugely popular among Bangladeshis because of its higher thickness.
4. Aircraft Plywood
Woods from Mahogany (Swietenia Macrophylla), Spruce (Picea sp.), Birch (Betula sp.) are exploited to make Aircraft Plywood. The African mahogany provides usable structural aircraft plywood. Among birch trees, European birch is very good. This kind is famous for its high strength. This type is also made from Mahogany, Spruce, Birch but the main quality is that this is resistant to heat.
5. Decorative Plywood
It is also known as overlaid plywood. Normally made from woods of ash ( Fraxinus sp), oak (Quercus sp.), Red oak (Quercus rubra), birch, Maple (Acer sp), mahogany, Philippine mahogany also called seraya, rosewood ( Dalbergia sisso).
6. Flexible Plywood
Flexible Plywood is exploited for making flexible furniture or structures. The furniture of the 18th century was mostly of curved structures. Flexible Plywood is made from Baltic Birch ( Betula sp).
7. Marine Plywood
Marine Plywood can be exploited in moisture, humid, wet environments. Even it can be utilized in moisture for a long period of time. The layers of marine plywood bear too little core gap to feel that doesn’t allow the wood to fix water inside the gaps. Marine Plywood provides fungal resistance.
Advantages of Plywood
- Plywood gives enhanced properties in its laminated structure.
- Plywood reduces the tensile stress in the structure.
- Provides good dimensional stability.
- Plywood does not corrode.
Disadvantages of Plywood
- Plywood has less strength compared to wood.
- Less durable than wood.
- The painted surface can be peeled-off.