waferboard

Waferboard is a type of engineered wood panel manufactured from small, uniformly sized wood wafers or flakes. These flakes are coated with a resin binder and then pressed and cured under heat and pressure. The manufacturing process involves drying wood chips, then cutting them into specific shapes and sizes. These wafers are then mixed with a binder, typically a urea-formaldehyde or phenol-formaldehyde resin, and formed into a mat. The mat is then pressed into panels of desired thickness and density.

The wood species used for waferboard can vary but often include fast-growing, less-than-prime trees. This makes waferboard a cost-effective alternative to traditional plywood, which is made from larger, rotary-cut veneer sheets. The orientation of the wood wafers within the panel is random, which contributes to its uniform strength in both directions. This contrasts with plywood, where the grain of successive veneer layers is oriented at right angles.

Waferboard is commonly used in construction as sheathing for walls, roofs, and floors. It is also found in some furniture and packaging applications. Its advantages include its affordability, ease of handling, and consistent performance. However, it can be susceptible to moisture damage if not properly protected. It is important to distinguish waferboard from oriented strand board (OSB), which uses larger, elongated flakes arranged in specific orientations to enhance structural properties, making OSB generally stronger and more dimensionally stable than waferboard.