Properties of melamine urea formaldehyde particleboard made from neolamarckia cadamba and leucaena leucocephala / Azematul Asma Md Yatim

Basic wood properties and particleboard properties made from two fast growing species, Neolamarckia cadamba and Leucaena leucocephala, with three different particle size and bonded with melamine urea formaldehyde resin were studied. The physical and chemical properties of Neolamarckia cadamba and Leucaena leucocephala wood were determined according to Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry (TAPPI) standards. Furthermore, the bending strength, internal bonding strength and dimensional stability of particleboard were tested based on European Standard. The results show that, species and tree portion were found to significantly affect the physical and less significant on chemical properties of wood. For particle analysis, species and particle size have a significant effect on bulk density. Species and tree portion were found to be significantly affect the specific gravity and moisture content for both species. In particleboard manufacturing, variable of species mixing, particle size and resin content were found to significantly affect the physical and mechanical properties of particleboard. From the results, it shows that all the particleboards mechanical properties meet the minimum requirement standard value. All the TS values were found higher than the maximum value set in BS EN standard requirement. In addition, the water absorption of particleboards, generally, was higher than 60%. Particleboard made from Neolamarckia cadamba with particle size 2.0mm and 14% resin content has the highest value of mechanical properties with MOE (3978.79MPa), MOR (32.21MPa), IB (1.16MPa) and IB from cyclic test (0.52MPa). For physical properties, particleboard made from Neolamarckia cadamba with particle size 2.0mm and 14% resin content has the lowest percentage in TS (11.77%) and WA (63.18%). Correlation coefficient of physical and chemical properties were found to be less significant on particleboard properties. This study proved that particleboard made from both species meets the European Standard minimum requirement except TS and can be used in particleboard manufacturing with some additional improvements especially on dimensional stability aspect. These two fast growing species can be benefited and utilized as an alternative raw material in Malaysian particleboard industry in order to expand and sustain the wood materials supply.