We are pleased to introduce our new grade; Pith Free Industrial (PFIND). Following the development of our new kilns and the expansion of our kiln dried market, this grade has been created for customers who use the knots and prefer less dead knots.
Much of the modern style furniture made for the local Chinese market are made from white woods, with no knots or flecks. This is in contrast to the manufacturers making for export who have used the slightly darker and fleckier New Zealand Radiata Pine, but still often without the knots.
There is now a growing sector in the Chinese market for furniture made by New Zealand Radiata Pine, with the knots in.
For this market we have developed our PFIND grade. It is free of pith, but still cut close to the core where there is less dead knots. It’s also softer allowing the furniture maker to easily texture the surface.
Like all our other New Zealand Radiata Pine Lumber, PFIND can be custom cut to your specific requirements.
New Zealand radiata pine is widely known as an extremely versatile lumber, suitable in a wide range of applications. The medium density of New Zealand Radiata Pine ensures versatility. Average tree density (oven dry weight-/green volume) is lower near the pith and higher near the bark. It varies with site and age from around 390kg/m3 for 25-year-old trees on a low density site to around 460kg/m3 for 45-year-old trees on a high density site. A 30-year-old tree on a medium density site has a density of around 415kg/m3.
The Timber compares favourably with other species in bending strength, bending stiffness and fastening. Under JAS 600, radiata is rated to equal to spruce-pine-fir, and better than western red cedar. Shear strength is excellent – a factor of its uniform texture.
New Zealand Radiata Pine forms heartwood at about 15 years and progresses slowly. At 30 years about 20% of the stem is heartwood. High permeability of the sapwood makes it easy to dry and treat with preservatives. Heartwood is less permeable than sapwood, but dries readily and can also be effectively preservative treated. When exposed to the possibility of decay the timber should be preservative treated.
Although sapstain fungi will colonise and discolour untreated wood. Modern treatments can effectively prevent sapstain.
New Zealand Radiata Pine has good stability and low to moderate shrinkage. Radiata Pine compares well with most other softwoods. from green to dry (12% mc) it shrinks, on average, 3.9% tangentially and 2.1% radially, which is slightly less than Douglas fir. Stability can be improved by high temperature drying or quarter sawing.
New Zealand Radiata has a light coloured sapwood with slightly darker heartwood. Exposure to the sun leads to a yellowing of both heartwood and sapwood. No special finishing techniques are needed for a uniform finished appearance.
The mechanical properties of sawn lumber are closely related to knot size and density. Because density increases with distance from the centre of the tree, mechanical properties follow that characteristic. Properties, particularly density, increase as ring width decreases, (ring width generally decreases with distance from the centre of the tree).
For more information, please contact us.