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Plantation grown Hevea brasiliensis (rubberwood) was thermally processed in a vacuum-pressure oven in the temperature range of 150-240 °C under two inert environments (vacuum and nitrogen gas) and normal atmospheric pressure (air). Effect of heat treatments on various physical properties of rubberwood such as equilibrium moisture content (EMC), specific gravity, water uptake, shrinkage, colour and surface roughness profiles was evaluated and compared with untreated wood. The EMC of rubberwood was found to be reduced by almost half while specific gravity was reduced slightly after heat treatment. The intensity of darker brown colour was increased with increasing heat treatment temperatures and colour change was observed to be uniform throughout the wood blocks. Dimensional stability, water resistance, colour and surface quality were observed to be improved after thermal processing of rubberwood at moderately high temperatures under inert environments without affecting other properties deleteriously. Based on improved properties, heat treated rubberwood was found to be suitable for nonstructural applications such as flooring, siding, paneling etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The plywood industries had been utilizing plantation timbers and other lesser known timbers for making plywood because of non-availability of conventional timbers. Melia dubia (malabar neem wood) has been identified as one of the fast growing species that would be suitable for plywood making and a study was carried out for determining its suitability for plywood manufacture. Investigations have shown that type-B surface veneers could be produced by peeling and the veneers could be dried without major degrades. Gluing and bonding properties have been studied and found that the panels made using urea formaldehyde and phenol formaldehyde adhesives meets the requirement of MR and BWR grade plywood as per relevant specification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]