Applications of Wood Shavings

Wood shavings are a kind of wood cuttings produced by wood processing. They are long strips of material cut from wood when wood is cut in a planer or electric saw. The quality and shape of shavings are closely related to the processing technology.

Wood shavings are a relatively thin rolled wood material. Before the birth of the shaving machine, shavings were the waste wood left by carpenters when processing wood furniture. These woods were not well utilized before, and were usually burned in vain, which was a pity.

However, with the development of science and technology, the market for wood shavings has also entered a new stage. The use of shavings has been continuously accepted by people in different industries, thus creating a market for processed shavings. At present, shavings are widely used in making particleboards, sawdust boards, pet bedding, papermaking raw materials for paper mills, bioenergy fuels, logistics fragile bedding, poultry bedding, etc.

The difference between wood shavings and sawdust is that they are produced in different ways and in different forms. Shavings are long strips of material cut by a planer or electric saw during wood processing. Their length is usually between a few centimeters and more than ten centimeters, and their width is between a few millimeters and a few centimeters. They are roughly in the shape of long strips or spirals.

In contrast, sawdust is the broken material produced when wood is chopped by an axe or saw. It is irregular in size and shape, usually only a few millimeters to a few centimeters, and is rough and uneven. Therefore, wood shavings and sawdust are different in form and use.

1. Furniture manufacturing

Wood shavings are one of the important raw materials for furniture manufacturing, such as common fiberboard and particleboard. Particleboard is usually used to make desks, dining tables, wardrobes, etc., with the advantages of light weight, good rigidity, and easy processing and molding. Fiberboard can be used to make sofas, chairs, beds, etc., and its advantages are flatness, firmness, and not easy to deform.

2. Building insulation

Wood shavings can also be used for building insulation. People often fill wood shavings in the roofs, attics, and walls of houses to maintain room temperature, while also absorbing moisture and avoiding mold.

3. Animal feed

Wood shavings are an important way to dispose of inferior wood, and can also be used as animal feed. For example, in pig farms and poultry farms, people use wood shavings as feed for pigs, chickens, ducks, etc., which contains a lot of lignin fiber and organic matter, which can improve the survival rate and fattening effect of animals.

4. Garden mulch

If you have your own garden, wood shavings are also a good mulch. Spreading wood shavings on the garden can inhibit the growth of weeds and increase the soil’s water retention capacity without affecting the respiration and growth of plants.

5. Industrial Uses

Wood shavings can also be used in the industrial field. For example, in paper mills, people use wood shavings to make cardboard, paper and other products. In the natural chemical industry, wood shavings can also be converted into various organic chemical raw materials, such as lignin, cellulose, fatty acids, etc.

Shavings are one of the commonly used experimental animal bedding materials, belonging to the wood type bedding. In addition, it has many brothers and sisters, such as sawdust, wooden sticks, wood fibers and wood chips, etc., but they are far less popular with experimental animals and breeders than shavings. Do you know why?

1. Good comfort and high safety

Research reports that mice and rats are not particularly picky about the shape and structure of the raw materials of bedding. They like natural soft bedding that is easy to hide and make nests, and they pay more attention to the comfort of the raw materials of bedding.

Sawdust bedding is mostly powdery, with a large contact area and strong water absorption capacity per unit volume, but animals have poor adaptability, poor gas-liquid exchange permeability, and form clumps when exposed to water, and are easy to agglomerate. Sawdust particles are easy to adhere to the fur and mucous membranes of animals. In addition to being unsightly, they can also cause respiratory and ophthalmic diseases.

Wooden sticks and wood chips bedding have poor hygroscopicity due to their small surface area defects. And the texture is hard, especially the sharp parts are easy to pierce the tender skin of mice.

Wood wool bedding is also not friendly to newborn or weaned mice. Due to its long fibers, it is easy to entangle the legs and necks of young mice, posing certain safety hazards.

Wood shavings bedding is mostly rolled thin sheets, with soft texture, low dust, strong moisture absorption, dry and breathable, so it is better than other wood bedding in terms of comfort and safety.

2. Cost saving and not easy to be eaten by mistake

In traditional daily feeding management, people usually follow the frequency of “double change per week” to change the nest to maintain a good growth environment for animals .

At present, the market bedding is priced by weight. Since wood shavings bedding is lighter, the cost of using wood shavings is the lowest at the same frequency of changing mouse boxes. It has high fluffiness, and each time a new bedding is replaced, the amount used to cover the entire cage surface is less than other bedding, which is cost-effective.

Compared with other bedding materials, such as corn cob bedding, which has a sweet taste and is easily eaten by mice every time a new bedding material is replaced, wood shavings only have a natural woody fragrance, so there is no worry about accidental ingestion, and it is also conducive to the release of the nature of experimental animals.

3. Free matching and good welfare

Due to its thin and curly flakes and good filling properties, wood shavings can be freely matched with grass, recycled paper cotton or corn cob bedding, which will not appear abrupt, and will also enhance the function of a single bedding material, with a synergistic effect, meeting the different customized needs of experimental animal rooms.

At the same time, the good permeability of wood shavings gives it a strong ammonia absorption capacity, which can reduce the ammonia concentration in the cage and provide a good environmental welfare for the growth of animals.

Although shavings have many advantages, you should also pay attention to the selection of materials when purchasing. Shavings can be divided into ordinary shavings and log shavings according to whether natural wood is used.

Ordinary shavings are generally processed and prepared from the scraps of wood processing plants or furniture factories. Their sources are complex and may contain harmful substances such as formaldehyde, which affects the growth and health of experimental animals.

Log shavings are usually made from natural wood through special production processes and strict sterilization processes. Compared with ordinary shavings, they are significantly enhanced in terms of odor, impurities, water absorption and ammonia absorption.

According to the type of wood, log shavings are currently mainly poplar shavings, birch shavings, pine shavings and fir shavings.

Studies have found that pine shavings and fir shavings release irritating substances, which are easy to induce animal liver microsomes, have cytotoxicity, and increase the incidence of cancer [.

Poplar shavings are fast-growing and high-yielding species with rich resources and a wide range of sources. The trunk is tall, the material is loose, the ventilation tissue is well developed, the fiber tissue is rich, the water absorption is strong, and it can absorb the odor of animals well. Therefore, when using shavings, it is recommended to choose poplar log shavings.