Wood fibres (also spelled wood fibers, see
spelling differences
Despite the various English dialects spoken from country to country and within different regions of the same country, there are only slight regional variations in English orthography, the two most notable variations being British and American ...
) are usually
cellulosic
Cellulose is an organic compound with the formula , a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to many thousands of β(1→4) linked D-glucose units. Cellulose is an important structural component of the primary cell wa ...
elements that are extracted from trees and used to make materials including
paper
Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, rags, grasses or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through fine mesh leaving the fibre evenly distributed ...
.
The end paper product (paper, paperboard, tissue, cardboard, etc.) dictates the species, or species blend, that is best suited to provide the desirable sheet characteristics, and also dictates the required fibre processing (chemical treatment, heat treatment, mechanical "brushing" or refining, etc.).
In North America, virgin (non-recycled) wood fibre is primarily extracted from
hardwood
Hardwood is wood from dicot trees. These are usually found in broad-leaved temperate and tropical forests. In temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen. Hardwood (which comes from ...
(deciduous) trees and
softwood
file:Pinus sylvestris wood ray section 1 beentree.jpg, Scots Pine, a typical and well-known softwood
Softwood is wood from gymnosperm trees such as conifers. The term is opposed to hardwood, which is the wood from angiosperm trees. The main diff ...
(coniferous) trees. The wood fibre can be extracted as a primary product, or collected during the milling of lumber.
Wood fibres can also be
recycled
Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. The recovery of energy from waste materials is often included in this concept. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the p ...
from used paper materials.
Paper
Wood fibres are treated by combining them with other additives which break down the fibres into a spongy mass called
pulp
Pulp may refer to:
* Pulp (fruit), the inner flesh of fruit
Engineering
* Dissolving pulp, highly purified cellulose used in fibre and film manufacture
* Pulp (paper), the fibrous material used to make paper
* Molded pulp, a packaging material
...
. The pulp is then processed, and the network of tiny fibres is pressed flat, becoming paper.
Construction material
Wood fibres can be pressed into hard, flat panels which can be used as a less expensive alternative to wood or plywood in situations not requiring structural strength.
Hydroculture
Wood fibres can be used as a substrate in
hydroponics
Hydroponics is a type of horticulture and a subset of hydroculture which involves growing plants, usually crops or medicinal plants, without soil, by using water-based mineral nutrient solutions in aqueous solvents. Terrestrial or aquatic plan ...
.
Wood wool
Wood wool, known primarily as excelsior in North America, is a product made of wood slivers cut from logs. It is mainly used in packaging, for cooling pads in home evaporative cooling systems known as swamp coolers, for erosion control mats, and ...
(i.e. wood slivers) have been a substrate of choice since the earliest days of the hydroponics research.
However, more recent research suggests that wood fibre can have detrimental effects on "plant growth regulators".
Composites
Wood fibres can be combined with thermoplastics to create strong, waterproof products for outdoor use, such as deck boards or outdoor furniture.
See also
*
Hemp paper
Hemp paper is paper varieties consisting exclusively or to a large extent from pulp obtained from fibers of industrial hemp. The products are mainly specialty papers such as cigarette paper, banknotes and technical filter papers. Compared to wood ...
*
Pulp (paper)
Pulp is a lignocellulosic fibrous material prepared by chemically or mechanically separating cellulose fibers from wood, fiber crops, waste paper, or rags. Mixed with water and other chemical or plant-based additives, pulp is the major raw mate ...
*
Woodfibre, British Columbia
Woodfibre, originally Britannia West, was a pulp mill and at one time a small company town, on the west side of upper Howe Sound near Squamish, British Columbia. The mill closed in March 2006.
History
In 1912, a mill opened at the site where Mill ...
*
Wood flour
Sawdust (or wood dust) is a by-product or waste product of woodworking operations such as sawing, sanding, milling, planing, and routing. It is composed of small chippings of wood. These operations can be performed by woodworking machinery ...
, a form of wood fibre
References
{{Wood products
Cellulose