Forest Products Laboratory

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Title: 3D structural panels : a literature review

Author: Hunt, John F.

Date: 2004

Source: 7th Pacific Rim Bio-Based Composites Symposium : proceedings, volume II : Nanjing, China, October 31-November 2, 2004. [S.l. : s.n.], 2004: Pages 272-281.

Description: The world population has surpassed the 6 billion mark and many of these people live in rapidly developing countries that are and will continue to place increasing pressure on the world's natural fiber resources. The total demand for raw material from the forest for housing, packaging, and for office and home furnishings, to name a few; are increasing. Traditional solid lumber products will not be able to fully supply all these needs. Potential replacements include wood composites, plastics, and metals. In the wood composites arena, the tree resource is shrinking, so lower quality and smaller diameter trees are being used for many of the traditional composite panel products. This trend is expected to continue. The demand for many of these commodity products will drive up the cost for the raw material, as well as the production costs for resins and drying or curing energy. For some applications, however, it can be shown that equivalent or superior performance over these traditional composite panel components could be provided with engineered three-dimensional fiber-based panel structures. It is possible that these fiber-based structures can use a wide range of "unwanted, fibrous materials including agricultural residues and recycled fibers, thus relieving the total demand for "good" trees. To enhance our total forest sustainability and stewardship there is a need to examine the uses of engineered structures from low-grade trees, small-diameter trees, or thinnings. This paper reviews the patent literature for developments of three-dimensional fiber based structural panels and discusses trends and research needs to further develop this area of composite panels.

Key Words: Three-dimensional structural panels, veneer, flakes, laminated paper, particles, fiber, non-woven, dry-formed, wet-formed, literature review

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Hunt, John F.  2004.  3D structural panels : a literature review  7th Pacific Rim Bio-Based Composites Symposium : proceedings, volume II : Nanjing, China, October 31-November 2, 2004. [S.l. : s.n.], 2004: Pages 272-281..