Evaluation of potential use of species of tropical pine and eucalyptus for UF plywood manufacture

Abstract

This research was developed in order to evaluate the quality of plywood manufactured from veneers of five species of tropical pine and nine species of eucalyptus. The plywood was manufactured with five veneers of 2.0 mm thickness, using urea-formaldehyde resin with amount of glue spread of 360 g/m². The boards were pressed at pressure of 10 kgf/cm², temperatures of 110 ºC and pressing time of 8 minutes. It was evaluated the properties of glue line shear strength (RLC) and static bending (MOE and MOR), parallel and perpendicular. Among tropical pine species, P. oocarpa and P. tecunumannii presented the best results in relation to mechanical properties of the boards. For the eucalyptus species best results were obtained by E. saligna, E. viminalis and E. dunnii. All the tropical pine and eucalyptus species evaluated in this research presented boards mechanical properties statistically equal or greater when compared to referential species - Pinus taeda. The results revealed the feasible use of such species veneers for plywood manufactures to internal applications.