Method and apparatus for use in producing reconsolidated wood products

A process for forming a reconsolidated wood product which comprises the steps of partially rending natural wood to form a plurality of flexible open lattice work webs each of naturally interconnected wood strands which are generally aligned along a common grain direction, a substantial proportion of said strands in each web being substantially discrete but incompletely separated from each other, superposing the webs, compressing the superposed webs to consolidate the strands whilst maintaining them such as to substantially extend in said original grain direction and bonding the strands of the webs together to hold them in juxtapositions assumed pursuant to said consolidation, and wherein said partially rending step is effected by crushing the natural wood between a pair of rollers arranged with generally parallel axes by rollingly engaging the natural wood from either side to form an open carcase of the natural wood and by spreading and refining the carcase to form the web, said spreading and refining comprising passing the crushed carcase through at least two roller pairs which have spaced corrugated rollers and in which the maximum spacing between the corrugations of the opposed spaced corrugated rollers decreases in the roller pairs with increasing distance along a spreading and refining path from the crushing rollers, reciprocating at least one roller of each spaced corrugated roller pair relative to the other roller of said pair during said pass, and passing the carcase through a pair of intermeshing corrugated rollers after said pass through a first of the pairs of spaced corrugated rollers and before said pass through a further of the pairs of spaced corrugated rollers.