Sengon for Plywood.

Sengon (Albizia chinensis) is a very fast-growing tree. In the proper climate and soil, the sengon tree can grow and be harvested at a much shorter age than other wood trees. Normally the tree can be harvested at 5 to 7 years of age. The sengon plantation can be managed easier than the other wood. Sengon plantations can be made in a small area with less capital and effort but give the certainty of revenue. Many sengon woods are planted by the villagers. The residents in the mountain slopes in Java such as Temanggung, Wonosobo, Salatiga, and Boyolali, are preferring to plant sengon instead of other wood. The ease of selling the timber is also another factor that makes the sengon wood very attractive for people. On the other side, many people plant sengon, which also gives advantages to the industries that cultivate the wood. The industries can utilize the wood without any supply problem.

Instead of the abundant supply, the sengon wood offers many advantages to be used as raw material in the woodworking industry. It is lightweight, malleable, and easy to process. The wood does not have nice grain and beautiful looked as: teak, mahogany, or mindi, etc. It is not suitable to make wood products that require the beauty of wood appearance. It is also not strong enough to make construction that needs maximum strength. Sengon wood is an ideal material to be used for interior parts and support to make many products in the woodworking industry. It is most used to make drawer boxes, furniture supports, inside of the wood panel, inside of the wall panel, etc. 

 
Sengon for plywood.

One of sengon utilizations is to make plywood. Sengon plywood offers many advantages; it is lightweight, durable, inexpensive, and quite strong. The plywood construction can increase the strength by 3 than the solid wood panel board. With proper gluing, the plywood will be stronger than bare core or laminated wood. The plywood can be marketed at a higher price than the bare core.

To make the plywood, we need better-quality wood. The wood to make the plywood must be straight and quite big in diameter (60 cm up). The wood is sliced with a rotary slicer to make veneer. The veneer layers are then dried and glued to make the plywood. At least 3 layers of veneer are needed to produce plywood. With cross-banding lamination, the wood will have equal strength in length and width. The plywood changes the timber that has varying properties and becomes more uniform, strong, and versatile. The plywood construction also reduces the risk of splitting and puncture to produce the rigid and high impact resistance. See our previous article: plywood for wood panel.

Sengon plywood is marketed with various thicknesses. The standard sizes are 6 mm, 9 mm, 12 mm, 15 mm, or 18 mm. The sengon plywood can be sold for panel products that do not require the good wood appearance, such as core board, back panel, drawer box, and support panels for furniture, or to make the panel for low-end furniture.

A beauty wood can be laminated at the face and back to produce plywood boards with a better look. Meranti, mahogany, mindi, or other nice wood can be used as the ace to increase the value of the plywood. The panel can be used to make top panels, side panels, and front drawers at the cabinets, tables, and other wood products. It could be a better choice instead of the solid panel because it is lightweight, relatively inexpensive with strength, and looks very similar to the solid wood boards. As engineering products, plywood sengon is also relatively more stable and has uniform properties compared with solid wood panels.