Manufactured Boards and their Properties

1. Manufactured Boards and their Properties MANUFACTURED BOARDS are a man-made material made using wood strips, veneers, pulp or particles of wood. Manufactured boards are often used instead of natural woods. • Disadvantages of Natural wood: • Trees contain a lot of water and when they are cut into planks they need to dry out and this can cause it to twist and warp. • It is difficult to accurately make things with a material that is not flat. • When working with timber it can break because it has a grain, timber is strong along the grain but weak across it. Natural wood is weak across the grain. Shaving a veneer for laminating • Advantages of Manufactured Boards: • It can be made any size. • Manufactured board is stable (it doesn’t warp or twist). • They are made a consistent thickness. • It is a consistent quality as it doesn’t have a grain or hard knots in it which can make it hard to cut. • Manufactured board generally has the same strength in both directions as there is no grain. • Thin layers of hardwood (veneers) or thin layers of plastic can be glued onto manufactured board to make it look better, this is called laminating. Warping and twisting of natural wood