Plywood

Description

PLYWOOD (COMMERCIAL, FANCY, MELAMINE, LVL)

Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers leaving their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another.

Commercial plywood is the standard plywood that can be accessed in any hardware store when you ask for plywood. Commercial plywood is usually a grade of plywood that is quite cheap because it is manufactured out of veneers or slices of wood called the ply which is glued or bonded together under high pressure.  Commercial plywood is also termed MR plywood where MR denotes moisture resistance. This means that the plywood can withstand a fair amount of dampness, humidity, and moisture.  Commercial plywood is made with different types of veneers that are popular in a particular geographical location. You have commercial plywood made of Rubber veneers in the south whereas, you have veneers made of eucalyptus in some other place.

Fancy plywood is very flat and smooth. Fancy veneers can be sliced, quarter sliced, or rotary cut (such as rotary cut fancy birch veneer). Usually, fancy veneers are natural wood. But artificial (man-made) fancy veneers (also called engineered wood veneers) are also available. Artificial fancy veneers look similar to natural wood veneers but are much cheaper. The raw materials for fancy plywood should be much better.

Melamine is an organic compound, a derivative of cyanamide. It has fire retardant properties due to its tendency to release nitrogen gas when burnt. Melamine also has a considerable surface toughness, making it scratch-resistant. It also exhibits resistance to mild acids and oils and has a fair degree of heat resistance. Melamine has also been in the news for the wrong reasons for its hazardous effect on food substances. However, we do not need to discuss that aspect here, as we only highlight its use as a construction material.

When we talk about melamine in woodworking, we aren’t describing the pure compound. We use melamine in carpentry in the form of sheets made of MDF or some other base material.

LVL is part of a family of products, structural composite lumber (SCL), that are made of dried and graded wood veneers, strands or flakes that are layered upon one another and bonded together with a moisture-resistant adhesive into large blocks known as billets. Other products in this group include laminated strand lumber (LSL) and parallel strand lumber (PSL). In the case of LVL, veneers are bonded together under heat and pressure. LVL is suitable for use as beams, trusses, planks, and rafters. When cross-bonded for increased stiffness it can be used to form wall and floor panels with load-bearing capacity. While frequently used solely as a concealed structural component of a building, finished appearance grades are also used.