WBP Phenolic Glue Marine Plywood Film Faced Plywood with Sealed Cut Edges and 6-12% Moisture Content

Marine plywood in this system is film faced plywood bonded with WBP phenolic glue and sealed along every cut edge, so it is built for wet and water-contact work rather than dry interior panelling. Sheets are 1220 x 2440 mm as standard and 8 to 30 mm thick, with 12, 15 and 18 mm the usual builds, and the veneers are dried to 6 to 12 percent moisture content before pressing so the board does not move after it has been fixed. It is used as formwork on water treatment structures and in coastal work, and as decking and interior panelling on vessels and on vehicles that are washed down regularly.

The glue line is the first thing to specify. WBP stands for weather and boil proof: veneers are impregnated and laid in a staggered assembly, pressed once cold and once hot, or cold, burnished and pressed, then hot, and only then laminated with the film paper under heat. A wet plywood sheet fails at the glue line long before it fails at the wood, so the bond grade decides how often a sheet can be wetted, stripped and returned to the stack. Melamine and MR bonds are available for drier work at a lower cost per sheet.

Every cut edge is sealed. Water reaches the core through the edges well before it crosses the face, so sheets are supplied with waterproof edge paint in the colour of the order. Boards also leave the factory at a controlled 6 to 12 percent moisture content, which is what keeps a fixed panel from shrinking back from its joints and leaving a stepped joint line in the pour.

One size range covers both forming and decking. Sheets run from 8 to 30 mm thick with a thickness tolerance of plus or minus 0.5 mm, and from 1220 x 2440 mm up to 1500 x 2500 mm, with 5 to 21 veneer layers depending on thickness. Panel weight is 17 to 31 kg, which is a two-man lift on a deck. The core can be poplar, birch, eucalyptus or a combination, the film comes in brown, red or black, and boards can be cut on site and re-sealed along the cut.

For detailed dimensions or custom sizes, please contact us.

These are the standard values for the system; tighter tolerances are quoted on request.

For detailed dimensions or custom sizes, please contact us.

Bond, press cycle and film are specified together, against the exposure the sheet will see.

For detailed dimensions or custom sizes, please contact us.

Marine plywood is used for vessel flooring and ship interior panelling, water treatment plants, fish farm and ramp structures formed to a ready-made radius, and for dams, tunnels and coastal formwork where sheets are rained on and stripped again and again. It also covers vehicle decks and sidewalls, warehouse shelving and outdoor stage flooring, where a board has to survive being washed down on a regular cycle.

Sheets move through eight steps before packing: shelf board preparation, raw material cutting, surface finishing of the semi-finished board, glue application, film lamination and hot pressing, manual inspection, instrument quality inspection, and packaging. A manual pass and an instrument check are both made on every batch, which is the part of the process that catches a thin glue line or an uneven film before the sheet leaves the factory.

Send us the sheet size, thickness, glue grade and the panels you are forming or decking, and we will quote against your drawing with samples for approval.