Merbau flooring

 Data are from Indonesia Wood Atlas Volume II, 1989; Department of Foresty Agency for Forestry Research and Development Forest Product Research and Development Centre Bogor-Indonesia.                      

Merbau wood is mainly used for flooring, furniture, paneling, fine joinery, decorative turnery, cabinetmaking, musical instruments, and specialty items. The wood is also a dye source.

USES

WORKING PROPERTIES
Sawing/Machining; Sawing is difficult as wood clogs saw teeth and dulls cutting edges; carbide tooling recommended. Sanding: Sands satisfactorily.
Nailing: Good holding ability.
Finishing: Wood stains black in contact with ferrous metals or moisture.

KILN DRYING :  Recommended drying temperature and relative humidity are 43-71C and 83-38%.

AIR SEASONING
Seasoning of 2.5 cm thick I. palembanica boards up to air-dry condition and humidity 15% takes 82 days respectively.

DRYING  : Merbau wood can be dried satisfactorily without incurring significant defect.

Durability
Fungi                        -             Class 1 - 2    -                        Very Durable to Durable
Dry Wood Borers      -             Heartwood durable
Termites                    -             Class D                                 - Durable
Treatability  :  Merbau wood is difficult to treat.

DURABILITY AND TREATABILITY

Solubility;
Alcohol-benzene: :    5.6%
Cold water             :  11.3%
Hot water              :    8.2%
1%  NaOH   2.9%

Content :
Cellulose  =  46.9%
Lignin        =  22.6%
Pentosan   = 17.1%
Ash            = 0.9%
Silica          = 0.2%

CHEMICAL PROPERTIES (I. bijuga)

note: at 12% moisture content

1925 lbs force

8.56 kN

JANKA Hardness

10733 psi

74 mPa

Crushing strength

2239 1000psi

15440 mPa

Modulus of elasticity

16679 psi

115 mPa

Bending strength

 MECHANICAL PROPERTIES

Fibre Saturation Point -  24 %

Shrinkage
Shrinkage to oven-dry condition of I. bijuga is 3.3% (Radial) and 4.1% (Tangential).
Shrinkage to air-dry condition of I. palembanica is 0.6% (Radial) and 0.7% (Tangential).

 PHYSICAL PROPERTIES ::  Specific gravity    =   0.84 (0.63 - 1.04) g/cm3                 Strength class  II

FIBRES = The fibre length is 1181 m with a diameter of 21.6 m.

RAYS = The rays are uniseriate and multiseriate, 50 to 125 m wide, 300 to 400 m high, and have frequency of 4 to 6 per mm.

PARENCHYMA = The apotracheal parenchyma has the shape of complete borders to the vessels.

VESSELS
The vessels is spread, solitary and in grouped of 2 to 3 in radial direction, rarely clustered, The diameter is 150-200 m, the frequency is 1 to 2 per mm2.

 STRUCTURE

TOUCH = The wood surface is smooth.               GLOSS = The wood surface is glossy.

TEXTURE = The wood texture is evenly coarse.   GRAIN = The grain is straight or occasionally slightly interlocked.

COLOUR =   The heartwood is brown-gray, brown-yellow, brown-red or black. The sapwood is light yellow. The sapwood has 5 - 7,5 cm tights. The sapwood can be differed from heartwood.

 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS

HABITUS
The tree stands 40 m tall, the clear bole is 4 to 30 m long, and the diameter is 100 cm. The buttress root is 4 m tall and 4 m width. The outside bark color is gray, gray to brown, light brown or light red. I. bijuga has shallow grooves bark. I. palambanica hasn't grove bark. The bark some peeled and some has a lot of peeled. The bark is tights and has black or dark red resin.

OTHER COMMON NAMES); Ipil, Ipil laut (Pl)

LOCAL NAMES
Marbau, merbau, merbo, ipi, ipil, kayu besi (Moluccas)

BOTANICAL NAME
- Intsia spp., Caesalpiniaceae family
- Intsia bijuga
- Intsia palembanica

AD/KD/F-1    =  Merbau

Merbau wood is mainly used for flooring, furniture, paneling, fine joinery, decorative turnery, cabinetmaking, musical instrumen