Bamboo properties and suitability as a replacement for wood

The utilization of bamboo as a manufacturing material is becoming globally attractive in the wood and wood product industries today. This is due to the numerous industrial applications and uses of the bamboo plant from its fast growth, availability, unique appearance and strength. Bamboo has been popularly known for its traditional uses such as poultry cages, vegetable baskets, incense sticks, skewers and chopsticks, woven blinds and handicrafts. Very little has been done on the industrial processing of bamboo into boards. Several authors have studied and reported on the utilization, processing and the properties of this emerging material as an alternative to the increasing decline of wood in the forest. This review aims to compare and contrast some of the works done on the advancement in producing laminated bamboo timber. The properties of bamboo and its laminated products attest to its potency in substituting wood. Bamboo utilisation has increased significantly in the wood and wood product industries, with adequate retooling in most processing firms in the sector. In line with the development and use of bamboo-laminated timber for the purpose of wood in furniture production, the creation of bamboo plantations on degraded lands will meaningfully support production and mitigate the degradation of forest

Polygon sawing : an optimum sawing pattern for oil palm stems.

The shortage in wood supply makes the effort to find alternative for wood material become more and more important. It was reported that the outer parts of oil palm stems could be used as solid wood after being properly treated. Being a monocotyledon, oil palm stems have a contradictory characteristic to the conventional hardwoods and softwoods and thus the sawing patterns suitable for hardwoods and softwoods should not be suitable for the oil palm stems. Two modified sawing patterns (polygon sawing and cobweb sawing) plus one ordinary sawing pattern (life sawing) were compared in the sawing of oil palm stems. The purpose of this study was to find the most suitable sawing pattern for oil palm stems. The cobweb sawing provided the highest outer lumber recovery (35%) followed by polygon sawing (27%) and life sawing (23%). The polygon sawing provided the highest occurrence of wide lumbers, followed by the cobweb sawing and life sawing. The cobweb sawing need more than twice effective sawing time (15.4 min) than the life sawing and polygon sawing. In overall, the polygon sawing was the most suitable pattern for the sawing of oil palm stem

Response surface methodology models of processing parameters for high performance phenolic compreg wood

The aim of the study was to develop response surface methodology (RSM) models for polymer loading, density, dimensional stability, strength and stiffness of compressed wood of sesenduk (Endospermum diadenum) treated with phenol formaldehyde (PF). Central composite design (CCD) using RSM with three processing parameters was studied in their specific ranges: PF concentration (PC) from 24-40%, pre-curing time (PCT), 3-9 h and compression ratio (CR), 70-90%. The experimental design was analysed and interpreted using the Design Expert Software (Stat Ease version 8) and the responses of 3d plots were built using the same software. Quadratic models in terms of PC, PCT and CR were developed for polymer loading, density, reduction in water absorption and modulus of rupture in static bending. Multiple linear equations were developed for anti-swelling efficiency and modulus of elasticity. The experimental values were in good agreement with predicted ones and the models were highly significant with correlation coefficients between 0.626 and 0.926. PC and CR had significant effects on the responses. The range of PCT used did not significantly affect the responses. It was also found that the improvement of properties ranged from moderately to highly correlated with the polymer loading in the compreg wood

Bamboo Properties and Suitability as a Replacement for Wood

The utilization of bamboo as a manufacturing material is becoming globally attractive in the wood and wood product industries today. This is due to the numerous industrial applications and uses of the bamboo plant from its fast growth, availability, unique appearance and strength. Bamboo has been popularly known for its traditional uses such as poultry cages, vegetable baskets, incense sticks, skewers and chopsticks, woven blinds and handicrafts. Very little has been done on the industrial processing of bamboo into boards. Several authors have studied and reported on the utilization, processing and the properties of this emerging material as an alternative to the increasing decline of wood in the forest. This review aims to compare and contrast some of the works done on the advancement in producing laminated bamboo timber. The properties of bamboo and its laminated products attest to its potency in substituting wood. Bamboo utilisation has increased significantly in the wood and wood product industries, with adequate retooling in most processing firms in the sector. In line with the development and use of bamboo-laminated timber for the purpose of wood in furniture production, the creation of bamboo plantations on degraded lands will meaningfully support production and mitigate the degradation of forest

Effect of different diameters and rake angles of Forstner bit on the quality of drilling on treated oil palm wood

Drilling characteristics and quality of oil palm wood (OPW) for high grade furniture manufacturing were determined. The effects of diameter and rake angle of a Fortsner bit on the quality of drilling in treated OPW was investigated in comparison with untreated OPW and rubberwood. Boring qualities of treated OPW proved to be superior to untreated OPW but fell a bit below the quality shown by rubberwood. The 25 mm diameter bit outperformed the 32 mm diameter bit, while 30° rake angle outperformed 20° rake angle. Treated OPW and rubberwood are of the same class of surface quality with Ra value of 8.65 and 8.63 µm, respectively, while the untreated OPW is far inferior (14.28 µm). In conclusion, the treated OPW shows immense improvement in drilling quality compared to untreated OPW

The effects of nodes and resin on the mechanical properties of laminated bamboo timber produced from Gigantochloa scortechinii

The objective of this work was to evaluate the mechanical properties of laminated bamboo timber (LBT) manufactured from bamboo (Gigantochloa scortechinii). Bamboo strips containing nodes were used to produce laminated samples. Each bamboo mat was arranged with 5 cm intervals ranging from 0 cm to 15 cm between the nodes in successive laminae. Phenol formaldehyde (PF) and polyvinyl acetate (PVAc) were used at two spread rates of 200 g/m2 and 250 g/m2. The best mechanical properties were found in samples without nodes. Increasing intervals also resulted in increasing strengths. In all the mechanical properties studied, PF had higher strength with 200 g/m2 spread rate except for shear where PVAc had similar values with PF. It appears that interval levels in the joints influenced the overall mechanical properties of the samples

Characterizing Surface Defects of Solid Wood of Dark Red Meranti (Shorea sp.),Melunak (pentace sp.) and Rubberwood (Heavea Brasiliensis) in Planning Process

The machining parameters affect surface quality and usually, wood planing process is heavily influenced by external parameters. External parameters concern mainly the machining process parameters such as: the feeding speed, the depth of cut, the cutting tool diameter and geometry, the cutting geometry, the cutting technique (up or down milling). This study was carried out to determine the planing properties of naturally grown Melunak (Pentace sp.), Dark Red Meranti (Shorea sp.) and Rubberwood (Hevea brasiliensis). Some machining defects such as fuzzy grain, torn grain and chip marks often occur in lumbers at the planing process and it decreases the machining yield. To understand and optimize the planing characteristics of this wood species, a series of experiments were carried out using a weinig Unimate 23E moulder (cutter-head rpm of 6000, cutter diameter 120 mm) to produce machined surface with differing depth of cut ranging from 0.8 to 2.4 mm, by altering the feed rate from 8 to 16 m min-1 according to ASTM D 1666-87. Based on the preliminary results of this study, the best results were obtained at 0.8 mm of depth of cut and feed rate of 8 m min-1 for Dark Red Meranti. While, the poorest results was on Melunak wood at 2.4 mm of depth of cut and 16 m min-1 of feed speed. This research also revealed that the combination of feed rate, depth of cut and wood species used had no significant effect on the surface quality of samples

Possibility of enhancing the dimensional stability of jelutong (Dyera costulata) wood using glyoxalated alkali lignin-phenolic resin as bulking agent

The utilization of low molecular weight phenol formaldehyde (LmwPF) resin as bulking agent to enhance the dimensional stability of wood brought some disadvantages, such as phenol is derived from non-renewable petrochemicals while formaldehyde is a known carcinogen. Hence, the possibility of using bulking agent made of glyoxalated alkali lignin (GL) incorporated in LmwPF resin to enhance the dimensional stability of wood was investigated. FT-IR spectroscopy showed that polymerization of GL and LmwPF resin was accomplished via the formation of methyl ether (CH2OCH2) bridge. Small amount of crosslinked polymer network was accomplished via the formation of methylene (CH2) bridge. Oven dried jelutong wood was evacuated under vacuum followed by soaking in 15, 20 and 25% concentrations of glyoxalated alkali lignin-low molecular weight phenol formaldehyde (GL-LmwPF) (67% solid of GL: 33% solid of LmwPF based on the total solute content) and LmwPF resins, respectively at ambient temperature for 24 h. The impregnated wood was then cured at 190 °C for 30 min. The weight percent gain (WPG) and dimensional stability in terms of antiswelling efficiency (ASE), moisture excluding efficiency (MEE) and water absorption (WA) as well as leachability of bulking agents were determined and compared with untreated wood and wood treated solely with LmwPF resin. The WPG of GL-LmwPF treated wood was lower than LmwPF treated wood. GL-LmwPF treated wood exhibited positive ASE, but the values were lower compared to LmwPF treated wood. The MEE and WA of GL-LmwPF treated wood were also inferior to LmwPF treated wood and untreated wood. GL-LmwPF resin was leached out from the treated wood whereas no leaching was found for LmwPF treated wood after three leaching cycles in distilled water. The formaldehyde release of GL-LmwPF resin treated wood was 25.76% less than of wood treated with LmwPF resin. Wood treated with 25% GL-LmwPF resin yielded highest ASE value compared to 15 and 20% GL-LmwPF treated wood. Hence, wood treated with 25% GL-LmwPF resin together with external coatings could be used in several end applications such as parquet flooring, paneling and furniture component

Effects of pressing cycles and durations on the properties of compreg oil palm wood

Oil palm wood (OPW) extracted from the oil palm trunks and subjected to a four-step compreg method consisted of drying, impregnation, re-drying and hot-pressing densification process. For the densification process, four different pressing cycles (involving 1–3 cycles) were proposed and conducted with three pressing durations (30, 35 and 40 min). Properties of the compreg OPW were evaluated. The results revealed that the samples compressed using the pressing process with more than 1 cycle displayed significantly better water absorption and thickness swelling. OPW samples that compressed with longer pressing durations also reported better performance and the formaldehyde emission decreased along with extending pressing durations. However, the improvement was not statistically significant, therefore, 30 min pressing duration is sufficient to achieve satisfied properties

Water repellent effect and dimension stability of beech wood impregnated with nano-zinc oxide

The objective of this study was to quantify the influence of zinc oxide nanoparticles (nano-ZnO) on the water repellency and dimensional stability of beech wood. Beech wood blocks were treated with a nano-ZnO solution at four treatment levels (0, 10,000, 20,000, and 40,000 ppm) using a modified dip method. Also, a thermal treatment was performed at 60 and 120°C. After conditioning the samples, water absorption, volumetric swelling, water repellency effectiveness, and anti-shrink/anti-swell efficiency were determined within 24 h of soaking time. The results indicated that the nano-ZnO used for wood modification greatly improved dimensional stability and reduced the hygroscopicity of the wood. In addition, the Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis suggested a strong interaction between the nano-ZnO and the chemical components of wood. The heat treatment effectively improved the effects of nano-ZnO