Plywood is constructed by bonding a number of thin plies (layers) that are also referred to as veneers. As a result, these layers are adhered one to each other and form a single solid substrate. There are a few essential processes that go into manufacturing plywood, which starts with harvesting trees at the source. After the trees are felled, they are logged and transported to a plywood mill where it has be converted into plywood.
A machine at the factory removes bark from logs. This is an important step as we do not make use of the bark when it comes to making plywood. Once the bark has been stripped, these logs are sliced into bolts of lumber. These bolts are soaked in water. The water is absorbed by the wood, making it softer and easier to work with. The bolts are then soaked and rotary peeled into thin layers called veneers on a specially designed machine known as the rotary peeler. The veneer that will become plywood is crated with this machine.
Most manufacturing plants utilize automatic machines to produce plywood rapidly and effectively. These machines are built to do very particular things and should require no human assistance. Which is great because now the factory can run all of that time and they will produce a LOT of high quality plywood in very little time.
These veneers are then glued up while wet into plywood panels. Each veneer is then coated with glue by a machine known as a glue spreader. Workers then stack the veneers in a specific pattern so that each layer has grains running perpendicularly to one another. This alternating grain direction is really important, as it makes the plywood strong.
Then the stacked veneers are pressed together under a lot of pressure and heat. The resultant process is a "hot pressing”MEA. So the hot pressing is important because it will happen to us that we have a flat and smooth plywood so you can easily use this in many other projects.
Production of high-quality plywood requires a very precise and accurate manufacturing process. This is achieved by using high-end machines and technology in the factories. They have computer-controlled laser cutting machines that accurately cut the plywood panels to size for different purposes. It ensures all the panels are equal in size and shape, an important part of quality control.
The time is now, as the world of plywood making has made a significant positive from using advanced technology. For example, some factories are currently looking into 3D printing technology. They can then fashion particular molds for the hot pressing. The molds are allowing them to produce plywood panels that have very different shapes and designs than what they were able to with the flat sheets.