Physical mechanical properties of plywood made from lesser known wood veneers bonded with phenol formaldehyde adhesive

Indonesia plywood production becomes the third-largest after wood particle and pulp production. However, this production is not supported by the continuous availability of wood as raw materials, so the use of less-known wood species such as mempisang wood can be considered as alternative raw materials for plywood. This study aims to develop plywood from mempisang wood and investigate the effect of glue spread on the physical and mechanical properties of plywood. The plywood consisted of three veneers glued with various glue spread of phenol-formaldehyde resin (250 g/m2, 275 g/m2, dan 300 g/m2) using single spread method. The plywood was hot-compressed at 130°C for 5 minutes with specific pressures at 10 kg/cm2. Physical-mechanical properties of plywood were carried out based on JAS 233-2003. The higher of glue spread slightly improves the physical and mechanical properties of the mempisang plywood. The Moisture Content (MC), and Shear Strength (SS) values of the plywood satisfied the requirements for the JAS 233-2003 standard. The best level of glue spread of the plywood glued with 300 g/m2 phenol-formaldehyde.