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Wood for Furniture

20th Floor, MTC Boardroom

13 July 2015

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Contents

1. MTC – Background

2. The Malaysian Timber/Furniture Industry

3. Timber & Timber Products for Furniture

4. Q&A

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MTC - Background

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Background - MTC

• Established in 1992; company limited by guarantee under

Companies Act 1965.

• Vision: To be the lead organisation in developing the Malaysian

timber industry into a world leader in the manufacture and trade

of timber products.

• Mission: To ensure the sustainability of the Malaysian timber

industry by improving its competitiveness, enhancing market

access and creating trade opportunities.

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MTC - Objectives

• To promote the Malaysian timber trade and develop the

market for timber products globally;

• To promote the development of the timber industry by

expanding the industry’s manufacturing technology base,

increasing value-adding in production and increasing the pool

of knowledge workers;

• To augment the supply of raw materials for the timber-

processing industry;

• To provide information services to the timber industry;

• To protect and improve the Malaysian timber industry’s global

image.

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The Malaysian Timber/Furniture

Industry

Exports of Malaysian Timber Products by

Regions (2012–2014) 2012 : RM20.2 billion

2013 : RM19.5 billion

2014 : RM20.5 billion

0

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000

14,000

2012 2013 2014

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Malaysia: Export of Major Timber Products

2014 Logs

RM2,073 million

10%

Sawntimber

RM2,545 million

12%

Plywood

RM5,200 million

25%

Veneer

RM304 million

2%Mouldings

RM711 million

3%

Chipboard/

Particleboard

RM108 million

1%

Fiberboard

RM995 million

5%

Wooden Frame

RM124 million

1%

BCJ

RM1,000 million

5%

Wooden Furniture

RM6,328 million

31%

[CATEGORY NAME]

[VALUE]

1%

Other Products

RM870 million

4%

(Total: RM20.5 billion )

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Malaysia: Top 10 Markets for Timber

Products 2014

Japan

RM4,155 million

20%

USA

RM2,423 million

12%

India

RM1,771 million

9%

Taiwan

RM988 million

5%Singapore

RM947 million

4%

South Korea

RM954 million

5%

Australia

RM905 million

4%

China

RM788 million

4%

UK

RM758 million

4%

Others

RM6,830 million

33%

(Total: RM20.5 billion)

Malaysia: Top 10 Markets for Wooden

Furniture 2014

USA

RM 1,978 million

31%

Australia

RM 433 million

7%

Others

RM 1,800 million

29%

Japan

RM 565 million

9%

Singapore

RM 351 million

6%

United Kingdom

RM 321 million

5%

Canada

RM 263 million

4%

UAE

RM 216 million

3%

Saudi Arabia

RM 145 million

2%

India

RM 137 million

2%

Korea, Republic of

RM 114 million

2%

(Total: RM 6.3 billion)

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Timber & Timber Products for

Furniture

Designing Furniture

Market

Gender

Age

Country

Function

Price

Material

TIMBER

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Designing Furniture with Malaysian

Timber Products

material

manufacturing process

tools

Materials

Solid Wood Plywood MDF

ParticleboardLVL Laminated Board

Types of Timbers

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Heavy hardwood

• Balau

• Chengal

• Merbau

• Red balau

Medium Hardwood

• Kasai

• Kelat

• Keledang

• Kempas

• Keruing

• Mengkulang

• Merpauh

Light Hardwood

• Bintangor

• Dark Red Meranti

• Gerutu

• Kembang semangkok

• Mersawa

• Nyatoh

• Rubberwood

• Sepetir

• Yellow Meranti

Softwood

• Podo

• Damar Minyak

• Pine

• Cedar

• Douglas

• Cypress

• Hemlock

• Spruce

Common Timbers for Furniture

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Rubberwood

•Pale cream in colour

•Moderately coarse texture with straight to shallowly interlocked grain

•Planes easily with smooth finishing

•Consistent supply

Nyatoh

•Deep pink-red colour or red-brown with stripe

•Moderately fine to slightly coarse texture

•Interlocked or wavy grain

•Easy to saw and work with

Sepetir

•Light grey-brown or beige with pink tinge

•Moderately fine texture

•Straight or interlocked grain

•Difficult to resaw but easy to plane and produce a smooth surface

Kembang semangkok

•Yellow-brown or light brown

•Slightly coarse and uneven texture

•Straight or interlocked grain

•Easy to work and plane

Dark red meranti

•Medium red to deep red or deep red-brown

•Interlocked grain

•Moderately coarse but even texture

•Easy to saw and to work with and produces smooth planed surface

•Large dimensional movement

Common Timbers for Furniture

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Walnut

•Dark chocolate-brown to purplish-black

•Straight or irregular grains

Rosewood

•Most well-known timber in the world

•Medium orange to dark reddish brown

•Sometimes with darker black streaks

Teak

•Golden or medium brown, with colour darkening with age

•Raw or unfinished wood have slightly oily or greasy surface

•Easy to work

Oak

•White oak and red oak

•White oak has better stability

•Nice figure – appearance of large rays

Cherry

•Reddish timber

•Clear defined stripe figure

•Fine texture and finishes well

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SOLID WOOD

SOLID WOOD

Criteria in choosing suitable solid wood for furniture:-

1) Good woodworking properties

Ease of Planing

Quality of Finishing

Ease of Boring

Ease of Turning

Quality of Nailing

Ease of Treatability

SOLID WOOD

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2) Colors range:-

- wide range of colors available

- finishing can help establish different colors as desired

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Colours

Bintangor Dark red meranti NyatohRubberwood

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3) Variety of grain pattern depending on the cutting direction to enhance

design

4) Dimensional stability

Shrinks – 0.6 – 5.5 % in dimension

Oak flat sawn Oak quarter sawn Oak end grain

Other properties

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COMPOSITE WOOD

PlywoodMDF

Particleboard

Laminated board

LVL

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Plywood

Thickness Surface Shape

• 3mm – 35mm • Veneer

• Paper laminate

• Not easy to

bend

• Form

bending

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Particleboard

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Particleboard

Thickness Surface Shape

• 9mm – 36mm • Plastic laminate

• Not suitable with

veneer

• Unable to bend

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Medium Density Fiber Board (MDF)

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Medium Density Fiber Board (MDF)

Thickness Surface Shape

• 6mm – 25mm • High-end paints

• Veneer• Unable to

bend

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Medium Density Fiber Board (MDF)

heavy straight

porous swells

fasterners

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Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL)

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thickness surface shape

Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL)

• Any desired width

and thickness• Its own surface

• Finishing or

staining

• Veneer

• Easy to bend or

curved

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• ‘Almost-like’ solid wood with smooth surface

• Can be engineered to meet specified technical and

strength requirements

• It can be dimensioned into any desired width and

thickness

• Possibility of curved laminated parts

Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL)

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Laminated Board

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• Pieces of solid wood glued together

• Can be dimensioned to any desired width and

thickness

• Suitable for table tops

Laminated Board

Furniture Manufacturing Process

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Selection of raw

material

Cutting to shape &

jointsDrilling Sanding Assembly Finishing

Packaging and

shipping

Selection of Raw Material

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type of material & quality

appearance

cost

Cutting to Shape & Joints

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•Cut to width

•Cut to length

•Surface planing

TYPES OF CUTTING

• Dovetails

• Butt joint

• Tongue and groove

• Mortise & tenon

• Rabbet

• Dadoes

• Finger-joint

TYPES OF JOINTS

• Strength

• Appearance

• Construction

SELECTING RIGHT JOINTS

Drilling, Sanding & Assembly

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DRILLING

• To make holes for dowel joints, for decoration purpose and to fasten wood with screws

SANDING

• Smooth the surface of wood prior to finishing

• Using stationary or portable sanding machine

ASSEMBLY

• Assemble accordingly with each parts and joints

Finishing & Packaging

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• Protection – how and where the furniture will be used (e.g: table top must be protected against spills and bumps)

• Appearance – can create almost any appearance

• Clear finish to highlight the wood grain

• Paint and enamel can cover up unattractive surface

• Stains and bleaches to make the wood lighter or darker

• Varnish to make the surface shiny

• Application – Some finishes applied quickly and simply while some are more difficult and more time consuming.

FINISHES SELECTION

• Use robust material that can protect the furniture from any damage

PACKAGING

Tools

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Tablesaw – crosscuts, ripping, cutting several types of joint

Bandsaw – crosscuts, ripping, resaw

Router – cut joints and decorative shapes

Carving tools – to do shaping and decorative designs

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MTC – Other Things That We Do

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Project: MTC Glulam Bridge in Putrajaya

� Span – 40m; Width – 3m

� Super structure – Mengkulang Glulam

� Cost: RM1.789 million

� Developer: myGlam Sdn. Bhd.

� Engineering detail : SWECO, Norway

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Project: Fire Performance Test

Current progress

� 5 species were tested for charring rate

� DRM

� Mengkulang

� Damar Hitam

� Merpauh

� Kapur

� Mengkulang shows the lowest charring rate of

0.50 mm/min

� A full size beam will be sent to BRANZ, New

Zealand for a full fire test

Fire Performance Test

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Timber-Related Projects

Timber Frame Housing

Current progress

� Ministry of Housing (KPKT) is

looking into using timber frame

system for some of their housing

projects

� A meeting between MTC and KPKT

to be scheduled soon

Developing a Span Table for Mengkulang Glulam

Current progress

� Testing done by UiTM’s Faculty of

Engineering

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MTC Website

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MTC Wood Wizard

Technical properties and applications of a comprehensive

list of Malaysian timbers

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Species Guide

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Projects

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MTC Technical Guidebooks

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Visit us at Archidex Fair (12 – 15 Aug 2015)

Hall 6, Booth Number 6D 702

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