Oriented Strand Board (OSB) is a new generation engineered wood panel product. It derives its origins from waferboard but is superior to waferboard in many ways.

Waferboard is a panel made up of layers of randomly oriented wood wafers and then bonded with a resin adhesive. However, this material doesn't have the strength and stiffness of plywood.

In OSB on the other hand, the orientation of the wafers is carefully controlled so that alternate layers are oriented perpendicular to one another. Usually, the outer layers are aligned along the length of the sheet with the inner layers alternating in direction.

This cross-orienting gives OSB the strength and dimensional stability that make it akin to structural plywood. As technology improves, OSB is also finding applications like furniture and cabinetry.

Whereas Plywood manufacture uses just 60-65% of the available logs, OSB by the very nature of it's process, can use upto 90% of the log. The balance us usually the bark which is cycled into the plant to generate energy. This makes OSB an ecologically friendly substitute for plywood.

OSB can be nailed, drilled, screwed, planed, filed, sanded, painted, polished laminated and veneered. In fact, you can drive a nail as close as 6mm (¼") from the edge without splitting the panel.

Unlike plywood, OSB is not susceptible to borer attack since the source wood is usually from plantations in temperate climates. Also, unlike particle boards and MDFs which suffer from high emission rates for phenol-formaldehyde resins, OSB has virtually no emissions.

Finally, OSB is the future of panel products. While Plywood and Particle Boards will continue to be available for certain applications, OSB will increase its presence in the market and set the standard for the other panel products.