Manufacturing High Performance Wood Composite Panel from Paulownia

Abstract

Regarding conservation policies of natural forests and environmental concerns forced wood composite panel manufacturers to consider using other lingo-cellulosic resources. Plantation fast growing species such as poplar, eucalyptus , paulownia and others is already started in many countries. Fast growing trees usually produce light wood with low strength so manufacturer has low certainty on using them for manufacturing wood composite panel. This study oriented toward examination of application of paulownia wood particle for manufacturing wood composite panel. In this study, specific press pressure at two levels (30 bar and 40 bar) , and press time at two levels (8 and 12 minutes) were used as independent variables. 12 experimental panels were made in laboratory. Mechanical properties such as MOR, MOE and IB were evaluated. Results showed that panels made at press pressure of 40 bar and press time of 12 minutes presented the highest MOR (41.28 MPa) and MOE (4128 MPa) but the highest IB (1.14 MPa) was observed in composite panels made at press pressure of 30 bar and press time of 8 minutes. Based on EN Standard MOR of Particleboard ranged from 12 to 15 MPa and MOE ranged from 2500 to 3000 MPa and IB ranged from 0.4 to 0.6 MPa . Comparing Above mentioned values with EN values it can be seen that Mechanical properties of wood composite panels made from paulownia are much higher than EN standard. These results are very good ground to focus on fast growing species such as paulownia to compensate wood raw material shortcoming in wood industry.