A review of methods to increase the flexibility of wood

Abstract

This paper provides a short review of the techniques that can be used to make flexible wood-based products. It also describes preliminary experiments on the potential of radial compression of French grown Poplar (Populus spp.) for the manufacture of highly flexible products. A 50% uniaxial compression strain was applied to wood blocks with an average moisture content of 15.5%. The blocks were then glued together to make larger panels from which small beams (nominally 10 x 10 x 150 mm3) were cut. After conditioning, the bending properties were measured. None of the flexibilized beams broke during testing and their stiffness was found to be less than 10% of the control beams.