Indian Plywood Industries Research Training Institute IPIRTI, Bangalore

About Indian Plywood Industries Research Training Institute IPIRTI, Bangalore

From a modest beginning in 1962 as a cooperative research laboratory, IPIRTI is now an internationally recognised research and training institute in the Field of wood and panels from wood and other lignocellulosic (renewable fibres) materials. Located in the garden city and technology city of India, Bangalore, the institute is an autonomous organisation of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India.

MANDATE & VISION

Institute is mandated to undertake Research, testing and standardisation, information, extension and training on all aspects related to processing and production of sawn timber, Manufacture of plywood and other allied engineered and reconstituted panel products from wood other lignocellulosic including bamboo.

Institute’s vision is to become an apex institution of international repute by equipping itself with concurrent state-of-the-art technology and develop inhouse frontline expertise to be able to carry out necessary R& D towards advising and /or providing competitive consultancy to the academia as well as wood and other lignocellulosic-based panel industry sector regarding the conservation of natural forests through development and adoption of efficient technologies for manufacturing wood alternates and panel products from renewable fibers, including plantation timbers & bamboo to meet the vital needs of the developing society.

Research & Development Activities

Facilities

The Institute has multifarious infrastructure facilities for carrying out investigations and conducting experiments at laboratory levels and trials at pilot scale levels simulating conditions existing in factories in the field of wood, plywood and other panel products from lignocellulosic materials. These facilities help in effective implementation and easy adaptation of technologies developed at the Institute by the Industries

Plywood Plant
The plywood plant comprises of machinery for the manufacture of plywood and other wood-based panel products of commercial size, established under FAO/UNDP/Govt. of India project. The important machines in the plant are Peeling lathe, Veneer Slicer, Clipper, Dryer, Guillotine jointer, Splicer, Core Composer, Glue Spreader, Glue applicator, Pre-press, Hot presses, Trimming machine, Sander, etc.

Saw Mill
The sawmill is well equipped with machines for sawing timbers of any size, including plantation timbers of small girth. Kiln seasoning plant for sawn wood is also installed for training for mechanical wood industries technology. The main machines in the mill are Band Headrigs, Band resaws, Narrow band saw machines, Edgers, Multiple rips saw machine, Cross-cut machines, Thickness planer, Four side planer, Vertical spindle moulder, etc.

Finger-Jointing and Edge Lamination
In this setup, facilities are available for finger jointing of timbers especially wood sections from a short length and small girth plantation timbers and for producing timber of wider size by edge lamination techniques and for making beams by glulam techniques. The vital machines in the section are the Finger-shaping machine, Finger-gluing machine, Finger pressing machine, Pneumatic clamp carrier, etc.

Sawdoctoring
The servicing and maintenance work for tools used in woodworking machines such as knives, saws, cutters are carried out in the saw-doctoring shop which was set up under FAO/UNDP/Govt. of India funded project for training purpose and it is one of the largest in South East Asia. The important equipment installed in saw-doctoring are Leveling and tensioning machines, Band saw and Circular saw sharpening machines, Stellite tipping machines, Tungsten carbide Tipping and Grinding machine, Cutter grinding Sawdoctoring machines, MIG welding machine, Brazing equipment, Grinders for Peeling knife and planer knife etc.This facility is also open to Industries for servicing of wood cutting tools.

Centre for Bamboo Development (CBD)
The centre has machinery for primary processing of bamboo and machines for developing bamboo laminates and bamboo mat panel products.

Maintenance Workshop and Carpentry Shop
The institute has a maintenance workshop for taking care of repair and maintenance works of machines installed in various plants and mills and also for fabrication of small equipment, instruments, jigs, fixtures, accessories etc. Maintenance Workshop

Carpentryshop
There is a carpentry shop which caters to the development of furniture, joinery and other housing components as needed under different R&D projects. The test specimens as per BIS standards required for testing various types of panel products are also prepared in the carpentry shop.

Wood Preservation Lab
The lab has facilities to take up investigations on preservatives for the protection of wood and other panel products from Fungi, Borers, Termites, etc.
In addition, for large scale application of preservatives/Vacuum pressure, impregnation plant and Boucherie process plant are also available for research and training.

Adhesive Technology Lab
The lab has facilities to undertake the development of an adhesive system based on synthetic resin, evaluation of resin characteristics, testing of resin as per relevant BIS standards, analysis of raw materials used in resin preparation and preservative chemicals etc.

Mechanical Testing Lab (CENTEC)
Facilities are available in the lab for testing wood, plywood and other panel products from lignocellulosic materials as per relevant BIS specification.

Particle Board Plant
Manufacture of good quality plywood requires defect-free wood. At present in India, about 80% timber for plywood comes from short rotation trees of plantation origin. Conversion ratio from such timber is low and higher grade plywood is difficult to be made from such timbers.

Formaldehyde Emission Test Chamber
To evaluate the steady level of formaldehyde emission a 1 m3 formaldehyde emission chamber has been fabricated as per the specification of EN 717-1 and ISO/DIS 12460- 1 and installed at IPIRTI. Volatile organic compounds and formaldehyde for the sample drawn from building materials and interiors can be measured in this chamber. This chamber method determines the formaldehyde emission at steady state from wood-based panels under defined conditions relating to average conditions in real life. This method is also applied to estimate the formaldehyde concentrations under various conditions in practice by the use of mathematical models.

Peeling lathe for processing plantation timbers
As a large number of plywood industries in the country is utilising plantation timber species for production of plywood, the new facility will simulate factory conditions. It also helped in creating a pilot plant scale production line of 1.2 m x 1.2 m size plywood.

Ultra filtration equipment
A new pilot plant facility consists of three Column having three different sizes ceramic membrane consist of two stainless steel (SS) tank, of 40 litres capacity has been recently established at IPIRTI. These three vertical membranes are connected with feed pump (3HP). This equipment is meant to fractionate chemicals in the mixture into definite molecular fractions by passing through micro-sieve of the ceramic column. Using this equipment various molecular mixture present in waste black liquor will be fractionated into various molecular weight range and the same were used for the manufacture of adhesive for wood based panel products.

Microscope with software analysis system
The microscope having Trinocular observation tube with UIS2 (Universal Infinity System) optical system, objective optical magnification 4x to 100x oil immersion along with 10x eyepiece magnification has been installed at IPIRTI, Bangalore. This microscope is attached with ProgRes® capture Pro 2.6 camera with image analysis software to measure the cell structure like length, width, diameter and other features. It is useful to identify the wood samples and to study their anatomical characteristics.