In the last year, Schauman Wood Oy has sold enough of its WISA-Trans plywood panels to put floors in a cool 14,000 standard sized vehicle trailers. It’s part of a continuing success story for the material, one of a range of panel products developed for vehicles from the largest trailers down to delivery vans.
Key criteria in the vehicle market are the need for stable, slip-resistant flooring which is both easy to install and capable of taking the rough treatment that can be expected during a long working lifetime. The Schauman WISA brand, marketed in the UK by UPM-Kymmene Wood Ltd, is designed and manufactured precisely to deliver those properties and to stand up to heavy-duty wear and tear.
Manufacturing takes place at the com-pany’s own plywood mills which have an overall capacity of some 850,000m³. There are 13 mills operational to date, the latest of these opening next week in Estonia, reinforcing the company’s status as the largest plywood manufacturer in Europe.
The starting point for a quality finished product is the raw material. The forest resources of the UPM-Kymmene Group provide a distinct advantage. Backed by stringent environmental codes of practice, Finnish timber is highly regarded and WISA plywoods are made from dense-grained birch or spruce, making them among the most stable traditional lightweight materials for vehicle building. Good strength-to-weight ratio increases loading capacity while better fuel consumption and the quality of the material also spells low operational costs and reduced maintenance for the end user.
The use of hi-tech coatings is also a crucial factor in performance. They improve the panel’s resistance to wear, impact, chemicals and weather exposure.
Wear and slip-resistant phenolic laminate coatings, applied to the top surface, can be of varying thickness with a range of colours, and with patterned finishes such as the hexagonal WISA – Hexagrip, which increase cargo and operator friction. The underside is coated to resist pick-up of moisture and road grime. Edges are factory sealed to reduce moisture penetration.
WISA plywood panels can now be found in a huge range of vehicles; trailers, trucks, vans, containers, horse-boxes, caravans, buses and cars. And they put up with some serious hefty punishment. Heavy duty WISA -Trans, for example can have a loadbearing strength of up to 5.8 tonnes per fork-lift wheel (ISO 1496), combining this capacity with a consistent weight and minimal moisture pick-up to reduce swelling or shrinkage.
Two other recent heavy duty introductions to the range are WISA Truck and WISA Truck Plus. They offer dramatic performance increases in resistance to abrasion and rolling loads at comparatively little increase in cost.
Plywood panels can also be used for interior lining. The WISA-Form Transport panel is from 4mm thick and finished with a coloured phenolic film to provide a smooth, snag-free and easy-to-clean surface for vehicle interiors.
During manufacture, components can be easily cut to size and into complex shapes. These customised, CNC-machined WISA panels create solutions to a range of vehicle needs, reducing manufacturers’ construction time and labour costs.
Typically, WISA-Trans is supplied in thicknesses up to 35mm, ready to fit. One-piece panels can be made in sizes up to 13500x2550mm and are suitable for the largest trucks and trailers.
Testing is in strict accordance with Taber (DIN 53799) and rolling test (SS 923502). Under Taber abrasion testing, traditional WISA-Trans recorded 3,700 revs while WISA-Truck recorded 19,600 revs and WISA-Truck Plus 30,100 revs. The rolling test for WISA-Trans recorded 8,000 cycles, for WISA-Truck 100,000 cycles and for WISA-Truck Plus 210,000 cycles.
And UPM-Kymmene Wood promises more to come. The company is developing more products in co-operation with customers and their changing requirements.
In addition to strength, wear resistance and weathering, research and testing is aiming for further improvement in sound insulation, fire and chemical resistance.
