Application of oriented wheat straw board in furniture and interior decoration

Excerpted from "Application of Oriented Straw Board in Furniture and Interior Decoration" in the 6th issue of "Forest Products Industry" magazine in 2018

Authors: Zhao Guiling, Deng Zongji, Mao Lei, etc.

This paper introduces the basic characteristics of the current oriented structure wheat straw board, analyzes its "shortcomings" in the furniture and decorative materials market, and discusses how to highlight the advantages of oriented structure wheat straw board through demand space analysis and development level positioning. It also discusses how to determine the development strategy of OSSB furniture and decorative materials according to market needs. It also discusses how to break the bottleneck and solve the "middle obstruction" problem in the development of OSSB furniture and decorative materials industry through measures such as focusing on process development and its value orientation, adjusting the industrial structure, and increasing investment in OSSB furniture and decorative materials. By analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of oriented structure wheat straw board furniture and decorative materials market, it proposes the key directions and strategies for developing this industry by leveraging its strengths and avoiding its weaknesses.

Oriented structural straw board (OSSB) is a structural board made from wheat straw, a residue from agricultural production, which is processed, oriented, laid, and hot-pressed with isocyanate adhesive.

[1-3] It has the characteristics of excellent performance, light weight, energy saving and environmental protection, and is one of the important renewable resources [4]. It can be widely used in many fields such as furniture, interior decoration, construction and packaging. Therefore, oriented structural wheat straw board has become a new material with great development potential at home and abroad.

Basic characteristics of OSSB furniture and decorative materials

OSSB is between medium-density fiberboard and wood particleboard in terms of performance, with a homogeneous texture and a very smooth surface. It has strong development advantages in strength, stability, machinability, nail holding power, veneer performance and load-bearing capacity.

OSSB furniture and decorative materials market "shortcomings"

In recent years, the accelerated investment in the research and development of oriented structure wheat straw board and the continuous improvement of production technology have promoted the rapid development of OSSB furniture and decorative materials industry, resulting in multiple indoor and outdoor application fields, and the cost performance has been greatly improved. However, in general, it is still far from meeting the huge market demand. 1) The price of upstream raw materials is high. At present, the price of high-quality wheat straw for industrial use is about 350 to 600 yuan/t[5]. This is especially true in the vicinity of papermaking, packaging, and wheat straw board enterprises. In addition, the transportation, storage conditions, and processing technology requirements are higher than those of wood. In addition, the price of adhesive materials based on isocyanate (MDI) is expensive, which raises the cost of board materials. 2) OSSB furniture and decorative materials enterprises are small in scale and low in level, and the quality of products varies. There are still many problems in technical transformation investment, new product research and development, after-sales service, and brand formation. 3) The development and use value in the field of interior design has not been fully utilized. These problems have restricted the production scale of OSSB furniture industry and the development process of the decoration market to varying degrees, becoming the market "short board" in the development of furniture and decoration industry.

Highlight advantages and determine the development strategy of OSSB furniture and decorative materials according to market needs

Judging by market demand, OSSB furniture and decorative materials are likely to expand their application breadth and depth in various areas, including cultural and sports venues, government agencies and schools, office buildings, commercial product displays, and home furnishings. The positioning and development strategy for OSSB furniture and decorative materials should not compete with solid wood products, but rather focus on low carbon and environmental protection, target the general public, and compete with other wood-based panel products.

Break the bottleneck and solve the "middle obstruction" problem in the development of OSSB furniture and decorative materials industry

Because OSSB production is relatively new, furniture and decorative materials using this board as a raw material have yet to form an independent, large-scale industry. Many companies rely on OSB furniture and decorative material production processes. Therefore, both micro- and macro-level efforts should prioritize addressing these key issues that continue to hinder industrial development.

Wheat straw, a plentiful renewable resource, is an excellent wood substitute. my country has abundant wheat straw resources, and the OSSB furniture and decorative materials industry, using it as raw material, holds great promise. By leveraging its strengths and avoiding its weaknesses, OSSB's numerous properties can inject new life into the furniture industry and open up vast opportunities in the interior decoration sector. This also provides an advantage for the furniture design, manufacturing, and environmental art design industries to explore emerging markets.