Editor: B.Eng., journalist, the Finnish honorary title metsätalousneuvos Ritva Varis
Wood products
Everything you need to know about the sawn timber, plywood, LVL, chipboard and various panels
Major part of the value of wood is used to produce engineered wood products. These applications include several sawmilling and wood-based panel products, such as sawn timber, plywood, LVL, chipboard and various panels. Together with other renewable wood-based solutions, the engineered wood products have an increasing importance in the global climate change mitigation.
This Wood products theme focuses on providing an overview of the wide spectrum of different wood products as well as reviewing their main properties, basic production processes and technologies, definitions and abbreviations. In addition to the product-driven introduction to this segment, selected point-of-view articles on topical issues related to the wood products will be presented.
The theme starts by focusing on the general properties of wood products. It includes an article about the stages and goals of wood construction. Business articles present the wood products industry’s responsibility programme and shed light on the business environment of the sawmill industry’s. The impact of the use of wood products on the climate is assessed using a carbon roadmap applicable to the sawmill industry.
The theme includes a description of modern sawmill investments and information about related technologies. Articles by machine and equipment suppliers highlight the connection between technology, competitiveness and profitability.
Finland is the leading manufacturer of plywood in Europe. Veneer and thin veneer plywood are manufactured alongside birch and softwood plywood. Laminated veneer lumber (LVL) is a plywood-like product, whose production volumes are increasing. Wooden panels are made not only from veneers, but also from chips and fibre. Wooden panels have unlimited applications, ranging from construction to the transport vehicle industry, from furniture to toys and from packaging to small items.
Sawn timber is one of the oldest wood products in the world. Standard sawn timber and glulam have a strong foothold in all types of construction. Sawn timber is also used to manufacture cross-laminated timber (CLT), which enables a new type of construction based on elements and modules. Research and development activities have resulted in new forms of processing, such as thermal modification for timber.
This theme has been created in an appreciated cooperation with two leading Finnish associations in the field of engineered wood products: The Association of Finnish Sawmillmen and Suomen Puuteollisuusinsinöörien Yhdistys – Finlands Träindustriingenjörsförening ry.
