Melamine Plywood

1. Specification of Melamine Plywood

Melamine Faced Plywood
Core	Acacia, eucalyptus, styrax, mixed core and others
Film	Melamine
Size	1220mmx2440mm or as customer’s requirement
Glue	Melamin, ure formanldehyde( E1, E2), phenol formanldehyde
Thickness	5mm, 9mm, 12mm, 18mm, 25mm or as customer’s requirement
Thickness tolerance	+/- 0.5 mm
Number of plies	7-11 plies
Moisture	<15%
Min order quantity	1 cont 20ft or 40ft
Usage	Using for flooring and furniture production
Packing	Pallets, reinforced by steel tape

 

2.How to produce LVL by Kim Global

Log Cutting

Logs are cut into small length suitable for veneer slicing.

Veneer Peeling & Cutting

The veneers are peeled from shortened logs. The veneers are graded after the peeling. Two types of veneers are used in the plywood production for cost reasons.

• Thick and low grade veneers for plywood core
• Thin and higher grade veneers for plywood face

The plywood core has no requirement in apprearance so lower grades are acceptable for core composition. As long as its strength is good enough.

Scarf joint veneers are half sanded on the tip to obtain a scarf joint effect.

A certain amount of timbers are wasted in this process due to the peeler limitations and wood defects.

Veneer Drying

Newly peeled veneers are fresh and have a high humid content rate from 35% to 45%. In order to absorb the glue properly, they have to be dried properly in a dryer or hot press machine. Veneer shrinks about 4%-10% after a drying process. The veneer drying process will improve plywood characteristics making it more sturdy.

What if the veneers are not dry? The glue won’t be absorbed into the grains and adjacent veneers won’t bond together. Bubbles would emerge in the hot press stage.

Glue Spreading

A glue spreader will spread the veneers with glue on both sides. Only half the veneers should be glued to make sure a dry veneer is layed up with a glued veneer. Glue types depend on the plywood quality requirement.

Veneer Laying Up

Glued veneers are layed up based on the structure type. To be clear, structural plywood and non-structural plywood have a totally different structure.

Unlike plywood mills in Europe or USA, Chinese plywood manufacturers use mostly labour in this process because each layer of the plywood core are not whole piece. Each layer contains either 3 pieces or 4 pieces veneer sheet.

Before any kind of pressure on stacked veneers, the veneers should stay certain amount of time. This time is to make sure veneers can absorb the glue evenly.

The grains of adjacent veneers are perpendicular to each other. This is to balance the strength of veneers to make sure the finished panel is balanced.

Cold Press

Cold press is a pre-press to save energy consumption. It can save time for hot pressing thus save production cost.

Fixing

Cracks on top veneers are fixed with putty or veneer slice. All the veneer joints are filled with putty to make sure the surface are good enough before sanding .

Hot Press (1st Hot Press)

This is the key process for plywood manufacturing. The glue is cured under pressure and heat. Veneers are bonded together to make a solid board. Plywood without this process is called one-time press plywood, which is lower quality than two times pressed plywood.

Cutting

The panel is cut into a square sheet in this process. A large amount of plywood residue is produced in this process. After cutting of the edge off, workers will do the necessary fixing on the plywood edge. The fixing includes manual polishing and hole filling.

Calibration & Sanding

The plywood sheet is not even in thickness. A calibration process can make the plywood thickness even. After this process, the top veneers are polished to gain better surfaces.

Face Veneer / Film Lamination (2nd Hot Press)

This is the last stage before you can get the finished product. It requires a thin decorative veneer or phenolic coated film. The decorative veneer might be polished for better appearance.

This step is considered the second hot press.

Quality Control

Quality control started already from the veneer peeling. After the surface veneer is laminated, there will be a final quality check before packaging. Defects on the surface and edge can be found out through visual examination.

Packaging

All exported plywood is packed on crates with plywood strapped by steel or PET straps. The packaging is sea-worthy and fumigation free. No solid timber used in the crates. Film faced plywood edges are coated with waterproof paint before the packaging.

 

3. Melamine Plywood Picture: