Meranti Wood for Woodworking Industry

Meranti (shorea) wood is one of the hardwoods that are widely available in Southeast Asia. There are about 70 species, including the family Dipterocarpaceae, traded under the name of Meranti wood. The Meranti wood is widely available in Indonesian tropical forests in Sumatra and Kalimantan, and some in Maluku. The success of the Indonesian government to stop the illegal logging is making the country the largest supplier of this wood. The other sources are Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines.
The Meranti wood has many advantages and properties to be utilized in the woodworking industry. Wood has a good ability to be processed by machines, sanded, drilled, and screwed. He has medium hardness, is easy to be handled, machined, and processed with a reasonable price. 

Physical properties can be seen in the table below:
 
Average Dried Weight     ( MC 12%)        : 44 lbs/ft3 (710 kg/m3)
Specific Gravity   (12% MC)                     : 0.55   -   0 .71
Janka Hardness                                        : 840 lbf (3.730 N)
Modulus of Rupture                                  : 11.800 lbf/in2 (81.4 MPa)
Elastic Modulus                                         : 1,675,000 lbf/in2 (11:55 GPa)
Crushing Strength                                      : 6.840 lbf/in2 (47.1 MPa)
Shrinkage  (from wet to MC 12%)            : Radial: 3.8% Tangential: 7.9%, Volumetric: 13.3%, 
                                                                    T / R Ratio: 2.1
data is taken from : http://www.wood-database.com/

The uses of Meranti wood.

The wood is used in the woodworking industry for various purposes. It can be logged, sawn, and sliced to any size. The wood can be used to make a house frame, flooring, decking, ceiling, walls, doors, windows, or furniture. The meranti wood can also be sliced to make ​​veneer or plywood. His grain character may not be as beautiful as the teak or mahogany wood, but it is still quite good to make the “wood-looking” panel. The meranti veneer is used as the face panel for the sengon plywood or block board with a better appearance than the sengon plywood. 

The uses of meranti wood in the furniture manufacturing industry are also quite lot. Many people use this wood to replace the mahogany wood. Although it does not have the beauty grain as the mahogany wood, the hardness, strength, structure, and basic colors are relatively similar. With the cheaper price and its high availability, then the Meranti wood is a good choice to make furniture. 

meranti wood for flooring  

Treatment for Meranti wood.

As the wood product, the Meranti has to be dried before it can be used in the woodworking industry. Overall, the drying can be done fairly easily, but the white and yellow Meranti have a high risk of getting a fungal attack, so it needs to be treated with the anti-fungal chemical. The wood has risk of getting insect attacked; preservation with anti-insect chemical is recommended to preserve the wood

Finishing for meranti wood. 

Finishing is quite important for this wood, especially when the decoration value is needed by the product. The wood does not have the same strong grain character as teak, mahogany, or other premium wood, but with proper finishing it can still serve an interesting appearance. The wood can absorb any finishing material without any problem. It can be finished in any color with any finishing material. The transparent colors are a good choice for furniture products, doors, windows, or flooring, and the coating should be selected according to the product function. The wood also has quite good porosity properties; he can accept the wood stain without any risk of blotchy color, as long as we do good sanding preparation.

Finishing with solid colors can also be applied to the wood with a relatively easy process. With its soft grain texture structure and small pores, this wood can be coated with paint coat without any problems. However, some species of this timber have resin that can exit and could disturb the finishing color; therefore, for the solid colors, it is recommended to use the catalyzed coating as the first sealer to seal the wood to avoid the stain problem from the wood.