Economic production of plywood made of large diameter timber by improved production technologies

Plywood production in Germany has been declining for many years although the consumption in this country is high. On the other hand, a large and still increasing supply of large diameter timber is growing in German forests. A research project, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, aims at the economically and ecologically sustainable use of large dimension timber for plywood production. One of the objectives is to check the feasibility of a peeled veneer and plywood plant in Germany using novel production technologies. A key issue for econornical plywood production is the improvement of defect detection and veneer sorting techniques. The paper will describe some novel concepts in this area, including enhanced colour characterization by spectral imaging, and present some prelirninary results.