How much do you, as an industry professional, know about the advantages and disadvantages of various types of boards?

Even among board manufacturers and distributors, many industry insiders find it difficult to clearly explain the differences between various types of boards in terms of their advantages and disadvantages. Xiaoshu has compiled information on the processes, advantages, disadvantages, and uses of various boards, hoping it will be helpful to everyone.

MDF

Other names: fiberboard;

Process: It is a type of engineered wood product made from wood fiber or other plant fiber as raw material, which is crushed and then coated with ursaldehyde resin or other suitable adhesives.

Advantages: Smooth and flat surface; not easily deformed; easy to process; good surface decoration.

Disadvantages: Poor nail holding power; heavy weight, making planing difficult; swells and warps when exposed to water; no wood grain on the surface; poor environmental friendliness.

Applications: Suitable for use in display cases, painted cabinet doors, etc. Not suitable for use when the width is large.

Particleboard

Other names: Particleboard, bagasse board, microparticle board, crushed material board;

Process: It is a type of artificial board made by cutting raw materials such as wood into fragments of a certain size, drying them, mixing them with adhesives, hardeners, and waterproofing agents, and pressing them at a certain temperature.

Advantages: Good sound absorption and insulation; strong nail holding power; good lateral load-bearing capacity; smooth surface, resistant to aging; suitable for painting and various veneers; inexpensive.

Disadvantages: Prone to chipping during board cutting, making on-site fabrication difficult; extremely poor strength; granular internal structure, making milling difficult; high density;

Uses: Chandeliers, ordinary furniture; generally not suitable for making larger pieces of furniture.

Multi-layer board

Other names: plywood, veneer board;

Process: A three- or multi-layered board material made by rotary cutting wood segments into veneers or slicing wood squares into thin wood and then gluing them together with adhesive. Usually, an odd number of veneer layers are used, and the fiber directions of adjacent veneer layers are glued together perpendicular to each other. The face veneer and inner veneer are symmetrically arranged on both sides of the core layer.

Advantages: Lightweight; not easily deformed; easy to construct; low coefficient of thermal expansion and good waterproof performance;

Disadvantages: Production costs are relatively high compared to other types of boards;

Applications: such as panels for cabinets, wardrobes, tables, and chairs; interior decoration, such as ceilings, wainscoting, and floor linings.

plywood

Other names: blockboard, plywood, woodworking board, Malacca board;

Process: It is made of two veneers (one or two layers on the top and bottom) glued and pressed together with a spliced ​​wooden board in the middle.

Advantages: Lightweight; easy to process; good nail-holding power; high strength; strong stability; simple processing;

Disadvantages: The surface is relatively rough; you need to be careful that the factory does not cut corners in production, and you need to prevent the wood strips from being made of different materials or even using scraps.

Applications: Suitable for furniture, door and window frames, partitions, holiday decorations, radiator covers, curtain boxes, and other places requiring a certain level of structural strength and where the temperature and humidity are relatively stable. Avoid using in bathrooms.

Finger joint board

Other names: engineered wood;

Process: This refers to the vertical splicing of narrow and short wooden strips using adhesive (often with toothed joints), which is made of multiple wooden boards. No additional plywood is glued on top or bottom. Because the vertical wooden boards use a sawtooth joint, it is similar to the interlocking of two fingers.

Advantages: The surface can be directly coated with clear varnish; it has a natural wood grain texture; it is affordable; and it is relatively environmentally friendly.

Disadvantages: Poor waterproof performance; the board itself has a high moisture content and is prone to deformation;

Uses: Generally used for making shapes or furniture frames, not suitable for making wardrobes and cabinets.

Comparison of glue usage on boards

It's easy to see that the smaller the "volume" of wood in a board, the more glue is used: finger-jointed board < plywood < particleboard < MDF.

As the old saying goes, "Whether a board is environmentally friendly depends on the amount of glue used." Having talked so much about boards, there's one more I forgot to mention: eco-friendly boards, also known as melamine boards or paint-free boards.

The core material of eco-friendly boards can be of many types: particleboard, chipboard, plywood, etc. Therefore, the environmental performance of eco-friendly boards mainly depends on the material of the core material. It is essential to understand the core material when purchasing eco-friendly boards.