IMPROVEMENT OF PHYSICAL AND BIOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF PARTICLEBOARDS BY IMPREGNATION WITH PHENOLIC RESIN

Particleboards were treated with a low molecular-weight phenol-formaldehyde resin and their properties were evaluated. Particles were dipped into aqueous solutions of resin or sprayed with resin solutions before spraying the conventional phenol-formaldehyde resin adhesive, or sprayed with a mixture of low molecular-weight resin and the adhesive resin in a single step. Though mechanical properties and dimensional stability of the phenolic-resin-treated boards were affected considerably by the incorporated resin loading (IRL), the methods of treatment did not produce significantly different results. After boiling for 2-hours, the boards treated at 10% IRL retained 80% of their strength values in the dry condition. The internal bond strength increased with increasing IRL values, and the boards with 20% IRL showed twice the value of untreated controls at the same level of board density. Treated particleboards showed a dramatic reduction in the rate of swelling even at low resin loading. Results obtained from accelerated laboratory tests of biodegradation suggested that incorporated resin-solids worked well to enhance decay and termite resistance of particleboards. For a brown-rot fungus, the weight loss was substantially reduced at 15% IRL, whereas attack was suppressed almost entirely even at low resin loadings for the white-rot fungus.