Properties Of Hybrid Plywood From Oil Palm Trunk (OPT) Veneer And Empty Fruit Bunches (EFB) Mat
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Date
2010-04
Authors
Mohammad Rawi, Nurul Fazita
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
Shortage of wood as a raw material has coerced wood based industries to find
alternative local raw materials, and oil palm biomass appears as the most viable
alternative. This work was based on the studies of converting oil palm trunk
(OPT) and oil palm empty fruit bunches (OPEFB) into new plywood and to
analyze their properties. Five-ply hybrid plywood (oil palm trunk veneer and
empty fruit bunch mat was arranged alternately) with different spread levels (300
g/cm2 and 500 g/m2) of resins (phenol formaldehyde and urea formaldehyde) were
prepared. The mechanical, physical and thermal properties of the plywood were
studied. The mechanical properties, such as bending strength, bending modulus
and screw withdrawal of hybrid plywood showed better mechanical properties
than oil palm trunk plywood. Plywood made using phenol formaldehyde showed
better properties compared to plywood made using urea formaldehyde. The
swelling thickness and water absorption of oil palm trunk plywood were higher
than that of hybrid plywood. The swelling thickness and water absorption of the
plywood made using phenol formaldehyde were better than that of plywood made
using urea formaldehyde. The thermal properties of the plywood panels were
determined through thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The panels glued with
phenol formaldehyde with a spread level of 500 g/m2 showed better thermal
stability as compared to the other panels. The delamination test showed that the
samples of hybrid plywood with glue spread 300 g/m2 using urea formaldehyde
exhibited the highest delamination while plywood made using phenol
formaldehyde samples showed no delamination. Scanning electron microscopy
(SEM) was used to study the fiber matrix bonding and surface morphology of the
plywood using different glue spread levels of the resins. The fiber-matrix bonding
showed good improvement for the panel glued with 500 g/m2 for both resins.
Description
Keywords
Converting oil palm trunk and oil palm empty fruit bunches , into new plywood and to analyze their properties