Solid wood panel manufacturing using low quality materials

Low-value hardwoods are not used to its full potential because they possess a challenging economic proposition to entrepreneurs in search of profit. In particular, high extraction and processing costs for low-value and underutilized hardwoods are not offset by products that carry a high enough value to customers to assure favorable economics. Thus, the low-value biomass is not used sufficiently in U.S. forests to support sustainable quality forest management practices. Furthermore, economic opportunities are lost for rural economies and forest landowners. The main purpose of the project described is to design the manufacture of a high value product from low-value hardwood timber achieving positive economics, thereby assuring the efficient and effective use of the resource. In particular, the project assesses the markets and the technical potential for manufacturing solid, finger-jointed edge-glued hardwood panels from low-value hardwoods. In fact, the technical feasibility of manufacturing edge-glued panels has been proven and is a major product of wood components manufacturers in the U.S. However, the use of low-value hardwoods for this purpose has not received much attention. This study intends to fill this gap by conducting an exhaustive analysis of secondary sources to assess raw material availability for such panels from low-value hardwoods. Also, appropriate processing routes to achieve competitive target prices while assuring positive economics are investigated.