Durability of Heat Treated Massive Poplar Plywood

Abstract

Plywood made of poplar are limited to indoor usages since poplar exhibits a rather low natural durability. Recently, wood heat treatments are applied to improve properties such as decay susceptibility and dimensional stability. Hence, to extend the potential of applications of this engineered wood product to outdoor end uses, and new markets accordingly, this study examines the potential of exposing poplar plywood to heat treatment. Plywood panels were glued with two kind of adhesives to compare their respective ability to resist the heat treatment. Those different plywoods were heat treated in saturated steam conditions at 215 °C for 2 hours following the ThermoWood® process up to a 14% mass loss. The durability improvement brought by the heat treatment was assessed in order to evaluate any possible outdoor uses for such plywoods.