Assessment in Screw Fixing Damages of Particleboard Surface: Difference in Screw Head and Self-Drilling Features

Abstract

Construction of kitchen cabinet in Malaysia has grown in correspond to the increasing number of housing development. However, kitchen cabinet supplier is facing with major problem regarding to the increasing number of failure that occurred at the screw jointing during kitchen cabinet installation. Thus, the objective of the study is to observed the failure or damages during screw fixing on kitchen cabinet. It was observed that the screw head and driving features effect the number of damages and the failure mode type. Screw with pan-head type has the lowest number of damages compared with countersunk head screw. Selecting screw insertion technique is also important in order to reduce number of damages. Insertion technique with pilot-hole pre-drilling managed to reduce number of damages and type of failure modes occurred. With this paper, the kitchen cabinet manufacturer will be able to select the best screw with their preferable insertion technique in order to reduce the number of damages used for kitchen cabinet jointing.