Veneer incising at the peeling lathe, a new technology developed at Forintek, has been increasingly applied in Canadian softwood plywood mills. Significant benefits include reducing veneer curl-up and spin-outs and increasing veneer recovery. However, a comprehensive study of the effect of veneer incising on the conventional hot-pressing process has not been undertaken so far. As part of the work on optimization of LVL/plywood hot pressing process, this report investigated the effect of veneer incising on the strength properties of Douglas-fir LVL/Plywood products. Lightly-incised Douglas-fir veneer peeled with a Forintek mini-lathe was used in comparison to non-incised Douglas-fir veneer. The three veneer moisture levels considered were 0%, 3% and 6%. The number of plies for plywood and LVL panels were 5 and 13, respectively. A mixed-level experimental design was employed. Using a statistical software program, JMP, the importance of factors affecting Douglas-fir LVL/plywood hot-pressing and strength properties were identified. Also the t-test was used to test the significance of the difference in panel mean strength. The results showed that:
1. For Douglas-fir species, the lightly-incised veneer (similar to that now used at mills) does not significantly affect the conventional hot pressing times for 1) 5-ply plywood panels if the target core temperature is 115 0C and 2) 13-ply LVL if the target core temperature is 105 0C, compared to non-incised veneer. The hot-pressing time increases with increase in veneer moisture content ranging from 0 to 6% for 5-ply plywood.
2. For Douglas-fir veneer, no occurrences of blows were observed after unloading the press even with 5-ply plywood panels at 6% veneer moisture content. Under the same conditions, the compression ratios of 5-ply plywood and 13-ply LVL using the lightly-incised veneer are slightly larger compared to non-incised veneer. Also higher moisture veneer results in higher panel compression ratio.
3. For 5-ply Douglas-fir plywood, there are no significant differences in plywood bending MOE and shear strength (lap-shear) between non-incised and lightly-incised veneer at either 0% or 3% veneer moisture content. However, at 6% veneer moisture content, the differences in mean plywood bending MOE and shear strength between non-incised veneer and lightly-incised veneer were identified significant; the mean bending MOE of 5-ply plywood using the lightly-incised veneer is about 10% higher compared to the non-incised veneer; on the contrary, the shear strength (lap-shear) of 5-ply plywood using the lightly-incised veneer is about 20% lower compared to the non-incised veneer. On a statistical basis, there is no significant difference in plywood mean bending MOR between non-incised veneer and lightly-incised veneer at each of the three moisture content levels.
4. For 13-ply Douglas-fir LVL, there is no statistical difference in edgewise bending MOE and MOR between the incised veneer and non-incised veneer at 3% veneer moisture content. Based on the limited number of replicates, the block shear strength through-the-thickness using the lightly-incised veneer is found to be approximately 10% higher compared to the non-incised veneer and this difference is found to be significant on a statistical basis. But the difference in block shear strengths parallel to grain between the incised veneer and non-incised veneer is not significantly different.