Agricultural News
OSU Researchers Say Eastern Red Cedars Might Make a Dandy Particleboard
Tue, 08 Jun 2010 15:55:16 CDT
More than seven million acres of Oklahoma lands are infested with Eastern redcedar trees.
These indigenous conifers are of low quality as a raw material in lumber manufacturing, and due to their irregular growth pattern, and their ability to rapidly overrun pastures and deplete plant nutrients in the soil and take up water, they are a huge headache to farmers and ranchers.
To combat this growing problem in Oklahoma, researchers at Oklahoma State University's Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources are investigating the possibilities of usefulness for Eastern redcedar. One of those studies is looking at the properties of three-layer particleboard made from the tree.
"The objective of this study was to investigate the use of whole-tree eastern redcedar furnish in manufacturing three-layer particleboard panels," said Salim Hiziroglu, professor in the department of natural resource ecology and management.
Static bending properties, internal bond strength, screw holding strength, termite resistance and thickness of swelling of the panels were evaluated throughout this study. The results of this study may be a light at the end of the tunnel for farmers and ranchers who often lose range and forest land to the species.
"Average physical and mechanical properties of the panels were found comparable to those of commercial particleboard manufactured from other species," said Hiziroglu. "Based on the findings of this study, it appears three-layer particleboard can be manufactured from whole-tree furnish of low quality eastern redcedar without having any adverse influence on properties of the panels."
Perhaps the most encouraging aspect of the study compared the damage of Eastern redcedar samples with Radiata pine control samples after these wood samples were placed in contact with Oklahoma's most widespread structural pest, the eastern subterranean termite. Initial results demonstrated that these widespread pests of wooden structures prefer feeding on the pine over redcedar.
"In no-choice feeding tests where termites received one panel product as a sole feeding resource, all redcedar panel products sustained less feeding damage compared with Radiata pine," said Brad Kard, structural and urban entomologist in the department of entomology and plant pathology. "Also, termite survival was less than 20 percent after 12 weeks, compared with 84 percent survival in Radiata pine controls."
In tests where raw redcedar chips, panel products and pine were available to termites simultaneously, the pine sustained more than 40 percent weight loss compared with weight loss ranging from 4.75 percent to 6 percent of the redcedar products.
"Based on the initial finding in this study, it appears particleboard panels made from Eastern redcedar could provide some resistance and benefit against termite damage," said Kard.
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