Tarbiat Modares University

Dr. Ali Shalbafan, faculty member of Marine Sciences Faculty of TMU, managed to design and produce light weight wooden panels as a mechanism to preserve forest resources.

One of the challenges faced by wood producers particularly in Iran concerns the provision of raw materials needed by wood factories. This concern can be attributed to numerous factors including: insufficient wood harvesting from forests, launching new factories and increasing the production capacity of existing factories, all of which had led to tense competition for raw materials.

The use of lower density fiberboards with suitable mechanical or physical strength is a solution to tackle wood shortage.

The use of light weight wooden panels (present invention) can save up to 30-50% wood materials used in plywood. On the other hand, the tendency of customers to use light weighted furniture (especially in Europe) is another factor which adds to the significance of this invention.

By this newly invented product, light weight fiberboards can replace plywood and MDF. This product can decrease up to 40 percent the use of forest resources (and consequently lead to less logging and deforestation)

Moreover, less logging leads to better forest preservation and environmental degradation. Another benefit of this invention is a reduction in plywood imports and the enhancement of relevant domestic industries.

It needs to be noted that this was the finding of a master thesis written by Mr. Kamran Choopani under the supervision of Dr. Ali Shalbafian and Dr. Johannes Welling from Hamburg University.