Forest Products Laboratory

Publication Information

Title: 3D engineered fiberboard : engineering analysis of a new building product

Author: Hunt, John F.; Winandy, Jerrold E.

Date: 2003

Source: EcoComp 2003, Queen Mary, University of London, September 1-2, 2003: 8 pages

Description: In many forests across the United States, the high forest fuel loadings are contributing to our recent forest fire problems. Many fire-prone timber stands are generally far from traditional timber markets or the timber is not economically valuable enough to cover the costs of removal. To help address this problem, the USDA Forest Products Laboratory has developed a process to produce three-dimensional structural fiberboard products that can utilize the wide range of lignocellulosic fibers contained in the forest undergrowth, underutilized timber, and agro-biomass. In this way, removing these components of the forest can be encouraged by the private sector, dangerous fuels can thereby be removed, and costs to the federal government for fire mitigation can be minimized. The newly developed product consists of an engineered wet-pulp-molded structural material molded into an engineered form by forming and hot- pressing the fibers between rigid molds with or without supplemental adhesive. This hot pressing produces strong inter-fiber bonds even when using relatively low-quality fiber. When the structural core is bonded to exterior skins, three-dimensional sandwich panels, called ‘3D Engineered Fiberboard’ are formed that exhibits a high level of strength and stiffness with significantly less material. Preliminary 3D engineering analyses are presented. The proposed technology has a number or promising uses in construction, furniture and packaging applications. The economic feasibility of constructing panels from these materials is also currently being assessed as part of our on-going research program.

Key Words: 3D structures, engineered fiberboard, engineering analysis, wood fiber

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Hunt, John F.; Winandy, Jerrold E.  2003.  3D engineered fiberboard : engineering analysis of a new building product  EcoComp 2003, Queen Mary, University of London, September 1-2, 2003: 8 pages.