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Making Birch Veneer Plywood

Bob visits the Georgia Pacific plywood plant near Savannah, GA to see how Birch veneer plywood is made. Most of the products made in the GP plant originate from resources in North America. First the Birch veneers are graded into face or back. The internal layers are made of actually made of Yellow Poplar. Each of the layers in the plywood has its grains cross-laminated, which adds strength. They are then put together on a glue spreader and using urea formaldehyde glue stuck together (The glue is specially formulated to contain only a small amount of formaldehyde) GP uses both heat and pressure to bond the layers and then uses precision saws and giant sanders to insure the boards exactly 4’ by 8’ and smooth. More information