Grupo Garnica Plywood has its origins in a family sawmill that emerged in 1940 in Baños de Río Tobia (La Rioja). In 1973 the company founded “Maderas Garnica” and opened a factory in this town for the production of plywood. Garnica is celebrating 75 years of business in the poplar industry.

As a shoot comes off a mother plant, it is cut and replanted in an irrigated unit. Garnica trees are cloned from five of the finest poplar specimens in all of Europe.

These pictures represent three stages of growth. The nursery stage, the youth stage of approximately eight years and the mature stage of between 10 and 16 years of growth.

Branches on the perimeter of a unit are not pruned. This helps prevent wind shake, which can fracture the trees’ cell structure.

A mature tract hosts trees that are between 10 and 16 years old. At this stage, they are almost ready for harvest.

Garnica forestry experts run detailed checks of the trees in order to determine the optimal time for harvest.

When mature trees are harvested an experienced eye can tell which of the five clone types a log represents by examining the core.

Logs are harvested and segregated for core peel verses face peel. The quality of the butt determines its final classification.

The sorted logs are collected and loaded onto machinery for transport to Garnica’s plywood processing facility.

During the debarking process, bark is removed from the logs in preparation for lathe processing.

Once poplar logs are debarked and cut to the proper size, they are sent through the lathe, which uses a laser that scans them 360 degrees.

The logs are also x-rayed for knots. The quality inspection allows the operator to immediately decide if the log’s peel will be good enough for the face, cross band or innerply layers.

Higher-grade logs produce ribbons intended for face layers. Garnica-grown plantation trees typically yield more high quality veneer than U.S. trees harvested from the wild.

Even inferior logs produce ribbons that are suitable for cross bands and core layers.

After passing through the dryer, workers manually run peels through a glue spreader to prepare them for pressing.

Dried core peels are placed in storage to await further processing.

Garnica’s press machine puts the peels under heat and high pressure for approximately eight minutes with no pre-press process. Many domestic producers will use a cold press prior to the hot press. Garnica’s technology allows them to bypass this prepress process.

Pressed panels are sent for finish sanding on a state-of-the-art floating head sander.

The final panel packaging where the unit is staged and made ready for international shipment. Once packaged, the

units are loaded onto covered flatbeds for transport to the port city of Valencia for international shipping.

Get the Garnica Advantage to Work For YouSo, what does Garnica’s poplar plantation and modern milling techniques mean to you? Watch a homegrown video made by woodworking expert and former shop owner Ray Franke as he demonstrates the machinability of Garnica Plywood.

Visit the DSI YouTube Chanel

Distributor Service Inchttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UClD69b5djbZaDiewnJzg2JA

See demonstrations of Rabbit Dado Router Cut

Screwholding Power

CONCLUSION:The poplar plantation method of raising cloned specimens ensures superior tree quality compared to domestic wild-grown poplar. The result is virtually void-free innerplys that are resistant to delamination.The enhanced quality of Garnica’s crossbands reduce shadowing and telegraphing. Plus, state-of-the-art sanding equipment ensures consistent thickness tolerances, making the plywood panels easy to work with. Therefore, DSI offers its customers the advantages of working with stable, machineable, cost effective panel products. Together, Garnica, and DSI, will grow the demand for quality, plantation grown poplar panel products.