Treesearch

This report describes the current status of wood and paper recycling in the United States and predicts the production and market consequences of increased recycling. The results suggest that the rate of paper recycling will rapidly rise in the 1990s, mainly as a result of the competitive evolution of fiber markets and papermaking technologies. The consumption and export of paper and paperboard are also projected to grow, but imports are projected to generally decline. In the context of increased paper recycling, the production of lumber and structural wood panels is projected to increase....

Structural and nonstructural panel products have constituted the fastest growing segment of the wood products industries over the past two decades. Based on announced plans, growth will accelerate in the next 2 years. The cost of wood fiber used in these processes has been rising. To keep wood costs as low as possible, a growing share of the new production is being channeled into regions where panel manufacturing has been low or nonexistent and where underutilized timber supplies are still available. There is also increasing interest in using agricultural fibers for panels, either to...

A large part of the forests located in the Rocky Mountain region of the U.S. West (inland West) is characterized by densely packed, small-diameter stands. The purpose of this study was to examine the economic feasibility of using small-diameter material from this resource to manufacture various wood products: oriented strandboard (OSB), stud lumber, random-length dimension lumber, machine-stress rated random-length lumber, laminated veneer lumber (LVL), and market pulp. The analysis indicated that LVL promises the best ratio of revenue to wood input, followed by market pulp and OSB. Among...

The Federal Highway Administration and the USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory, jointly sponsored the National Conference on Wood Transportation Structures, October 23-25, 1996, in Madison, Wisconsin. This was a direct result of 5 years of cooperation in conducting research related to timber transportation structures. The objective of the conference was to present state-of-the-art information on wood utilization in transportation applications. The conference included a plenary session, reviewing timber bridges throughout the world, followed by concurrent paper sessions on...

Brown-rot fungal antigens were detected by particle capture immunoassay(PCI) in southern pine 2 X 4’s beyond visible or culturable hyphal growth. Further analysis of test samples revealed changes along the 2 X 4’s that could be grouped into zones. Zone 1, the point of inoculation through 6 cm, showed low pH, measurable oxalic acid, high moisture, and high protein. Zone 2, through 16 cm, marked the end of visible hyphal growth, increased permeability, viable fungi isolated by culturing, and detection by microscopic examination. Zone 3, through 71 cm, revealed increased alkali solubility....

Agro-based resources, also referrered to as lignocellulosics, are resources that contain cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin. Lignocellulosics include wood, agricultural residues, water plants, grasses, and other plant substances. When considering lignocellulosics as possible engineering materials, there are several very basic concepts that must be considered. First, lignocellulosics are hygroscopic resources that were designed to perform, in nature, in a wet enviornment. Secondly, nature is programmed to recycle lignocellulosics in a timely way through biological, thermal, aqueous,...

An extensive U.S. research program to further develop wood utilization in transportation structures is currently in progress as a joint effort of the USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory, and the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration. This research is funded primarily by U.S. legislation and involves cooperative research with universities, government agencies, and private industry. Within the program, research is divided into six areas: system development and design, lumber design properties, preservatives, alternate transportation system timber...

In recent years wood strength researchers have begun to replace experimental unit allocation via random sampling with allocation via sorts based on nondestructive measurements of strength predictors such as modulus of elasticity and specific gravity. Although this procedure has the potential of greatly increasing experimental sensitivity, as currently implemented it can easily reduce sensitivity. In this paper we discuss the problem and we present solutions. Given the existence of nondestructive measurements of strength predictors, our methods can be used to reduce sample sizes. We have...

Preservative-treated wood is an economical, durable, and aesthetically pleasing building material; therefore, it is a natural choice for construction projects in our National Forests, National Parks, and other public lands. However, we need to ensure that the chemicals used in treated wood do not pose a threat to people or the environment. The purpose of this report is to provide a summary of the pertinent literature on leaching of wood preservative components and their mobility in the environment. The waterborne wood preservatives chromated copper arsenate (CCA), ammoniacal copper zinc...

Filled thermoplastic composites are stiffer, stronger, and more dimensionally stable than their unfilled counterparts. Such thermoplastics are usually provided to the end-user as a precompounded, pelletized feedstock. Typical reinforcing fillers are inorganic materials like talc or fiberglass, but materials derived from waste wood, such as wood flour and recycled paper fiber, are also effective as fillers. The goal of this project was to generate commercial interest in using waste-wood–paper- derived fillers (WPFs) to reinforce thermoplastics. The research strategy was twofold: developmenta...