Multilaminar wood: manufacturing process and main physical-mechanical properties

This article reports the results of experiments carried out on multilaminarwood (MLW). This is an industrially made decorative material with two main features: it faithfully reproduces the morphological patterns of a large variety of fancy woods and, with the aid of CAD techniques, it may serve as a wood-based material with effects and colorings rare or non-existent in nature. MLW is mainly valued for aesthetic reasons. However, our work aims to gain further knowledge of its main physical-mechanical features in order to collect useful technical information about its performance for various applications. After reviewing the development and methods of manufacturing of MLW, this article describes our assessment of the influence on the main physical-mechanical features of cutting angle and bleaching treatment. We found that the cutting angle did not substantially affect the mechanical properties of the MLW. In contrast, the bleaching treatment exerted a statistically significant influence on hardness and the modulus of elasticity in bending. Furthermore, the values found were particularly homogeneous as compared to those of the solid-wood used to produce MLW (obeche and poplar from plantations), both within the same block and among blocks, with very low coefficients of variation of the properties investigated. This is due to the greater density of the product, resulting from the large quantity of adhesive and the pressing of the block during the manufacturing process, aswell as the removal of knots and other defects.