SHIPPERS OF QUATITY WEST COAST TUMBER

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Testing loborotory Opened For Soufhern Pine Plywood

The first 'qriality control laboratory to test structural plywood manufactured from aouthern pine timber has been opened in the South by the American Plywood Association, formerly the Douglas Fir Plywood Association.

APA is a nationwide trade organization that maintains a quality control, promotion and research program lor roughly 85 percent of America's structural plywood manu- 'facturers.

Therlaboratory was opened in Shreveport, La., to service a new plant at Fordyce, Ark. Other plants are scheduled to begin.production soon in Diboll and Houston, Texas.

Plywood produced under the APA program will carry the nationally-known trademark and will be interchangeable with plywood manufactured from Douglas fir and other western wood species.

To qualify for use of the APA grade trademark stamp, production runs from a prospective new mill must undergo vigor- ts:{ius testing for a period of from several , d"y. to several weeks. The mill is inspected thoroughly, also, for equipment approval.

After a mill has become a member of the association, quality control supervisors from APA inspect the mill at least two or three times a week and send random panel samples into the testing laboratories.

Exterior type samples, which must be completely waterproof, are subjegted to a vacuum and water pressure test method in the laboratory that completely saturates the plywood with water. Then the samples are torn apart in a steel-jawed machine.

At least 85 percent of the samples must come apart in the wood itselfo rather than in the glue bond between plies in order for the sample shipment to be approved.

Interior-type plywood samples undergo :r series of wetting and drying cycles, ihen are closely inspected for delamination because the panels must be mighly moistureresistant, though not completely waterproof.