Industrial testing of cork oak wood for veneer and plywood production

Resumen

The rationale behind this work is to gain further knowledge on the quality and technological properties of cork oak wood for veneer production and to open the possibility of bringing into the market another wood species for high value uses. Nowadays the economics of cork oak forests is mainly focused on cork production. A total of 23 cork oak trees were harvested in Algarve (Portugal) and processed in one veneer and plywood industrial company (ONTE, Spain). Over 800 m2 of veneer with 0.6 mm thickness were produced. The industrial testing proved the possibility of producing veneer from cork oak logs using the standard procedures adapted to handle the hardness of this material, namely increasing the duration of the hot water treatment. Most difficulties related to the presence of internal wood defects that decreased operational and product yields. Plywood was also produced with cork oak veneer. Both cork oak veneer and plywood had an excellent aspect and a high aesthetic visual character mainly due to the wide xylem rays that are characteristic of this species. It was also a hard wood and the veneer was very resistant to friction. The veneer characteristics suggest its use for floor components as particularly interesting.