Lignocellulosic materials modification and engineering in relation to viscoelastic perspectives

Abstract

By 2010, only 52% or 94 million ha of the total land area in Indonesia was forested. Therefore, we should develop forest plantation with fast growing species, or better efficiency and quality improvement for the utilization of forest products. The conventional method of fabricating curved wooden products is to cut wooden beams into a curved wood, and to connect them for the expected curve shape. However, the disadvantages of this conventional woodworking process are wasting of wood raw materials, decreasing the wood strength due to fiber cutting, and reducing the beauty of wood fiber direction. These problems can be overcomed by bending solid wood, as well as curving laminated veneer lumber (LVL). The bending method of solid wood requires special technique and equipment compared to curving method of LVL. The development of commercial products is required to understand basic knowledge of wood bending. This paper deals with lignocellulosic materials modification and engineering in relation to viscoelastic perspectives; describing viscoelastic property of wood and other lignocellulosic materials, and development of furnitures and bicycle frames from LVL curves. It is expected that more modified and engineered products can be made from lignocellulosic materials based on the knowledge of their viscoelastic properties.