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　　Jointly organized by the Department of Wood Materials and Design, National Chiayi University, and the Chiayi Forest District Office, Forestry Bureau, “Laminated Veneer Lumber Creative Products Presentation” kicked off at the International Networking Academy, Lantan campus, on the morning of March 26th. The presentation aimed to proactively promote the domestic timber of Taiwan, and increase Taiwan’s timber self-sufficiency rate through collaboration among the industry, government and academia. Also by “learning by doing,” they hoped to showcase Taiwan’s research and development capacity in making creative products with domestic, mass-produced laminated veneer lumber (LVL).

　　Guided by Lin Han-Chien, Professor of the NCYU Department of Wood Materials and Design and also Dean of the College of Agriculture, students of the department have been conducting “A Study on the Application of Domestic Laminated Cedar to the Development and Mass Production of Wood Products.” The objective of the project, commissioned by the Chiayi Forest District Office, was to develop products using domestic, mass-produced laminated veneer lumber. The presentation featured four exhibit areas including: an introduction to mass-produced laminated veneer lumber of domestic cedar, creative products made of laminated veneer lumber, processed goods made from laminated veneer lumber by manufacturers, and combination and packaging of goods. A total of ten real creative products are put on display. According to NCYU President Chyung Ay, the team has been working with the Chiayi Forest District Office, Forestry Bureau to develop laminated veneer lumber. The project enabled the NCYU students to apply theories taught in class to practice in the real world. In the days to come, they hoped to help the timber industry in Taiwan to prosper further via cooperation among industries, government and academic research organizations.

　　The majority of Taiwan’s domestic timber derives from thinning of small- and medium-sized trees. Rotary cutting and lamination should be applied to develop creative wood products with laminated veneer lumber as materials to meet consumer demands. The resulting products will be less affected by the log’s volume and weaknesses (such as decay, knots and cracks), while maintaining formal changeability complete with a beam and column structure. To wood manufacturers, product design and manufacturing based on the domestic timber might be one of their focuses on diversification. Chang Tai, Director of the Chiayi Forest District Office, Forestry Bureau, indicated that the Forestry Bureau has been promoting the use of “domestic products” since 2017 in order to increase the domestic timber utilization rate. In conjunction with the sustainable forestry policy, it is expected that the domestic forest utilization rate should reach 3-5% or higher in the next 5 years. With a view to promoting the policy, efforts should be made to increase the domestic timber utilization rate, strengthen the industrial chain, commodify raw materials of origin through industrial mass production, as well as develop a diversity of cultural and creative products along with the trend as a strategy. All these would help boost the development and utilization of domestic timber.

　　To pursue mass production of domestic timber and the novel vision of meeting the needs of the times, enhance the use of domestic small- and medium-sized cedar trees, according to Lin Han-Chien, Dean of the College of Agriculture, NCYU, it is crucial to develop creative wood products with mass-produced laminated veneer lumber. They hoped to revivify the splendor of the traditional wood manufacturing industry by encouraging them to utilize domestic timber, thus increasing the utilization value of afforested trees and small- and medium-sized (thinned) trees. This may serve as a reference for private forest farmers, and meet the principles of “better utilization of lumber through more reasonable classification” and “mass production in practice” as urged by the Forestry Bureau, Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan. In his remarks, Dean Lin expressed his gratitude to the Chiayi Forest District Office, Forestry Bureau, for their funding, and to Lin Chen-Ching, Chairman of Wand Tsai Industrial Co., Ltd., for his unwavering support. Without them, the possibility for domestic timber manufacturers to mass-produce laminated veneer lumber would be less likely to come true.