Comparison of Wood Veneer-Based Composite Characteristics Made of Jabon Wood (Neolamarckia cadamba) and Sengon Wood (Falcataria moluccana)

Abstract

The shift of wood raw material sources from natural forests to community forests opens opportunities for West Java Province Indonesia as a source of wood raw materials because it has a large area of community forests. One type of plant grown in community forests is the jabon tree (Neolamarckia cadamba). This study will investigate whether jabon wood can be utilized as raw material for wood composite, such as laminated veneer lumber (LVL), laminated veneer board (LVB), and plywood, from the aspect of physical and mechanical characteristics, such as moisture content, density, bending strength, hardness, delamination, and formaldehyde emission. Another will find out the economic consideration of jabon compared with sengon wood. Results showed that based on the physical, mechanical, delamination, and formaldehyde emission characteristics, the tested jabon wood can be used as a raw material for wood veneer-based composite with better characteristics compared to sengon wood.  However, the availability of jabon wood is lower than sengon wood and the price of jabon wood was higher than sengon wood. These factors may limit jabon utilization.