9. BS EN 635 : Plywood - Classification by surface appearance

(Has superseded BS 6566 Part 6 - Plywood - Specification for limits of defects for the classification of plywood by appearance)

Part 1 : 1995 (re-confirmed 2001) - General

Establishes general rules for the classification of plywood by its surface appearance. It does not apply to overlaid plywood. The classification is made according to the number and the extent of certain natural characteristics of wood and the defects that come from the manufacturing process.

Five appearance classes are distinguished - E, I, II, III and IV

Part 3 : 1995 (re-confirmed 2001) - Softwoods

Tabulates the size of allowable characteristics and defects for each of the appearance classes listed above. Table 2 covers characteristics inherent in wood, while Table 3 deals with manufacturing defects.

As a rough guide to equating APA veneer grading rules from PS1-95 with those appearing in BS EN 635 Part 3 the table below will be of assistance. This is a very simplified interpretation of the grading rules based on the appearance of the veneers. It must be appreciated that equivalents cannot be exactly compared as two different sets of rules apply.

Table 5