Comparing birch core plywood with traditional softwood plywood

Abstract

Plywood made with birch cores is an important product in the European Union, and has potential to become an important product in North America. White birch in Ontario is currently an underutilized species. This paper explores the mechanical properties of a new plywood product being produced in Ontario that is very similar to European birch plywood, but uses white birch (Betula papyrifera) grown in North America. Tests were done to measure the modulus of elasticity, compressive strength parallel to the grain and hardness of the new plywood and traditional softwood plywood. These values were tested using the ASTM D1037- 12 testing standard. Compared to softwood plywood, the birch plywood had 94.83% of the compressive strength of softwood plywood, 82% of the MOE and 181.95% of the hardness.