Kuching, Wednesday, 3 March 2010– A low cost wood lamina strength grading machine for optimising the utilisation of wood residues for glue-laminated timbers has won the gold medal at the Malaysian Technology Expo (MTE 2010) held at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur recently.  The innovative invention by a team of researchers from SARAWAK FORESTRY Corporation is designed to grade wood lamina with length of down to 30 cm.  Besides this coveted entry, SARAWAK FORESTRY was also awarded a bronze medal for its other invention – a moulded wood composite chair for efficient utilisation of plantation wood or wood residue from plantation trees.

Datu Haji Len Talif Salleh, Managing Director and CEO of SARAWAK FORESTRY said that the team took six months to design, fabricate and test their invention.  “This is our debut participation in MTE and we are proud that our research team has attained an excellent standard.  As clearly stated in our vision and mission statements, these invention will help to enhance the local timber and plantation industries” he added.

Relating to the invention, Len Talif, who is also the Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Planning and Resource Management and the Director of Forests, stressed on the importance of conserving the natural forest, which has employed the necessity of developing forest plantation to sustain the supply of raw material for future use by the industry.  He added “Currently, Sarawak has planted 300,000 hectares and a target of one million hectares are being progressively planted by 2020.  Researches conducted on plantation species showed high wastage due to low recovery from processing.“

Not only waste disposal is costly but usually leads to environmental pollution due to indiscriminate dumping and burning.  Len Talif said, “this innovative moulded wood composite chair shell aims to optimise the utilisation of timber from planted forest through having 80% of its wood material obtained from wood residue.”

The gold medal invention, the Wood Lamina Strength Grading Machine operates by using standard compressed air to act on a pneumatic air cylinder, which applies a an increasing force on the wood lamina until a pre-determined deflection is reached.  The air pressure needed to achieve this condition is directly proportional to the wood lamina’s modulus of elasticity (MOE).  A precision pressure sensor captures this result and an electronic circuit processed it directly into a MOE result in Giga Pascal.  The displacement sensing is zeroed just before the application of the bending force, allowing uneven specimens to be correctly measured, which takes about two seconds to complete.

The moulded wood composite chair shell, which was awarded the bronze medal, is made by binding six layers of wood materials using Melamine Urea Formaldehyde adhesive.  The uppermost layer consists of fine particles followed by two cross-ply veneers.  A finishing of Polyurethane coating seals the aesthetic ‘wood’ feeling.  The chair shell was tested for rupture strength and can endure up to 2500 kg.