A quantitative study of poplar plantation situation in four Iran provinces

Poplars, a fast-growing species, enjoy a high significance in Iran’s industry. So far, information on poplar plantation, such as area, volume, and harvest, has been obtained by non-scientific and poor methods. A few studies have been conducted to recognize capability of poplar plantation about area, volume, harvest, distribution, and species in three high efficient provinces, i.e., Eastern/ Azerbaijan, Zanjan, Kermanshah, and Ardabil. A  Cluster sampling a standard sampling method for conducting similar researches was selected, consisting of two phases. In the first phase we collected library information and half-open interview from villagers. In the second phase field measurement in the villages of these four provinces was considered. Obtained information from field measurement was erected poplar volume, cultivated poplar area, prevalent species and estimating volume via volume and weight tables. Results obtained from the present study indicate that average annual utilization volume of four provinces was 172628.84 m3, with an average error of 14.19 percent

Direct catalytic conversion of bagasse fibers to furan building blocks in organic and ionic solvents

The applications of lignocellulosic wastes to produce a wide variety of products, including biochemicals, biomaterials, and biofuels, can be an effective solution for utilizing these valuable waste materials. In this study, the production of furan building blocks from bagasse fibers was investigated by treating unbleached fibers with NMMO, [Bmim]Cl, and TMAH at different temperatures using AlCl_{3} and CrCl_{2} as the catalysts. The resulted liquors were extracted with CH_{2}Cl_{2} to obtain furan rich fraction. Analysis of extracted fractions with GC/MS indicates the production of various furanic compounds due to catalytic solvolysis with different solvents at elevated temperatures. 2(3H)-Furanone and 2-methyl-THF were the main products of catalytic treatment of bagasse fibers with NMMO. Treatment by [Bmim]Cl resulted in 2,5-dihydro furanone as the dominant product at elevated temperatures. Furan carboxylic acid methyl ester and 2,5-furan dicarboxylic acid dimethyl ester were the main TMAH reaction products with unbleached fibers. The results indicate that the type of solvent affects the solvolysis rate and dehydration of cellulose to furanic compounds. Moreover, increasing the temperature led to an increase in the formation of the furanic compounds

Assessment of physical, mechanical, and biological properties of bamboo plastic composite made with polylactic acid

The effects of different mixing, bamboo mesh size and heat treatment on the physical and mechanical properties and biodegradability of a polylactic acid (PLA) composite were determined. The results indicated that this composite exhibited high strength in all mechanical properties examined, except hardness using the pure polymer (PLA). The mesh size of the bamboo flour and heat treatment had considerable effects on all tests expect the decay resistance. The water absorbance and thickness swelling of the PLA composite was reduced to nearly zero after 3000 hours immersion in water. Moreover, the fungal decay test results demonstrated that PLA was highly resistant to both Basidiomycetes and Ascomycetes fungi. The brown rot fungi, however, produced an extensive mass loss in the composite composed of different levels of bamboo flour

Tracking and Simulation of Dry Shell Formation in a Wood Drying Process by X-ray Spectroscopy

In this research, dry shell formation and receding of evaporation front through the thickness of  beech and spruce boards were investigated during drying using X-ray spectroscopy. Four surfaces of the boards were coated using epoxy resin to limit moisture flux through the board thickness. The boards were dried using a convectional drying method under the temperature of 60°C and relative humidity of 70%. The scanning process was conducted once in an hour during drying until the dry shell reached the core layer of the boards. The results revealed that the dry shell was formed faster in the beech board in comparison with the spruce one; however, it reached the core layer of the spruce board in a shorter time. In addition, the pattern of dry shell formation was found to be different between the boards; a steady-state condition as a result of faster bulk flow of free water was observed during the early stage of drying of the spruce board. In general, it can be concluded that the controlling factor in the dry shell development to the core layer is water vapor diffusion coefficient of the boards rather than their permeability

Furniture industry management by applying SCM

The purpose of this study is to use supply chain management in a wood furniture company and find its effect on the management indices of that company. The supply chain is a complex system consisting three or more commercial units which directly include at least one connected product procedure, financial service, and/or information from one source to a customer. In fact, in every company and factory, a cycle is carried out from raw material producing stage to product delivery to final customer. To be more precise, this cycle itself includes different rings such as provider, producer, and customer. Actually, in creating present procedures, time factor should be reduced to satisfy the customer more. In this study, data connected to a wood furniture company were provided through supply chain management model. Likewise, optimized program was offered using GAMS programming software. Considering the acquired results, the use of this model can revolutionize the wood furniture industry of Iran, regarding competitive features. As a result, it develops the aforementioned industry

Investigating the effect of butanediol diglycidyl ether on the crosslinking of nanocellulose

This study was focused on the preparation of an environmentally friendly nanocellulose based hydrogel in the form of pads. Hydrogels are hydrophilic three dimensional network with crosslinks, swells in water but don’t dissolve. In this research nanofibrillated cellulose and Hydroxyethyl cellulose with different ratio (1:1, 2:1, 3:1) were used to make hydrogel. Also, citric acid which has a significant advantage over other crosslinking agents in terms of toxicity and price, has been used in different amounts of 10% and 20% by weight to crosslink. In order to find optimal hydrogel preparation conditions, FTIR analysis, FESEM, time dependent swelling measurement and evaluating the thermal and rheological properties were performed. Samples with a lower ratio of nanocellulose to hydroxyethyl cellulose were found to be inappropriate due to the loss of their apparent integrity in the swelling measurement. According to FTIR results, cross-linking were performed only in samples with the highest ratio of nanocellulose to hydroxyethyl cellulose in different amounts of citric acid. Therefore, the hydrogels' characteristics were mainly influenced by the ratio of nanocellulose to hydroxyethyl cellulose and the amount of citric acid had less effect on these properties. These two successful final samples showed acceptable properties in other evaluated properties and led to the selection of optimal reactive ratios for the preparation of hydrogels for use in various industries, including the pharmaceutical industry

Prediction of bending moment resistance of screw connected joints in plywood members using regression models and compare with that commercial medium density fiberboard (MDF) and particleboard

The study aimed at predicting bending moment resistance plywood of screw (coarse and fine threads) joints using regression models. Thickness of the member was 19mm and compared with medium density fiberboard (MDF) and particleboard with 18mm thicknesses. Two types of screws including coarse and fine thread drywall screw with nominal diameters of 6, 8 and 10mm and 3.5, 4 and 5 cm length respectively and sheet metal screw with diameters of 8 and 10 and length of 4 cm were used. The results of the study have shown that bending moment resistance of screw was increased by increasing of screws diameter and penetrating depth. Screw Length was found to have a larger influence on bending moment resistance than screw diameter. Bending moment resistance with coarse thread drywall screws was higher than those of fine thread drywall screws. The highest bending moment resistance (71.76 N.m) was observed in joints made with coarse screw which were 5 mm in diameter and 28 mm in depth of penetration. The lowest bending moment resistance (12.08 N.m) was observed in joints having fine screw with 3.5 mm diameter and 9 mm penetrations. Furthermore, bending moment resistance in plywood was higher than those of medium density fiberboard (MDF) and particleboard. Finally, it has been found that the ultimate bending moment resistance of plywood joint can be predicted following formula Wc = 0.189×D0.726×P0.577 for coarse thread drywall screws and Wf = 0.086×D0.942×P0.704 for fine ones according to diameter and penetrating depth. The analysis of variance of the experimental and predicted data showed that the developed models provide a fair approximation of actual experimental measurements

Effect of Graphite powder on thermal conductivity, physical and mechanical properties of 3-layer particleboard

This study, has investigated effect of using graphite powder on thermal conductivity during the time of production in three-layer boards made ​​of planer shaving particles (70% in the middle layer) and the particles poplar (30% of the surface) at 4 levels of 0, 5, 10 and 15% (oven dry adhesive). After that physical properties and mechanical strength measured. Overall, results have shown that use of graphite powder, increases amount of thermal conductivity significantly. Also found that modulus of rupture and modulus of elasticity had significantly increased and the thickness swelling and water absorption decreased, but they had no significant effect on shear strength parallel to surface. So the boards produced by 15% graphite powder had maximum amount of modulus of rupture (18.42 MPa) and modulus of elasticity (2298MPa) and also had minimum amount of water absorption and thickness swellin

Evaluation of the geographical concentration of furniture industry in Iran with the aim of furniture cluster development

In this study, with the aim of furniture clusters development, the geographical distributionof furniture industries in Iran was evaluated and taking account this parameter, the areas with the high priority for the development of the furniture clusters were identified. LQ (Location Quotient) calculation method was used to calculate LQ for 193 cities. The cities with a LQ higher than one were identified and sorted in a table. LQ was higher than 1.5 for 45 cities. It means many cities have potential for furniture clusters development. According to the result aside from developing clusters such as Tehran, Shandiz and Malayer, Qom, Talesh, Babol, Eslamshahr, Shahriar, Robatkarim, Babolsar, and Gorgan furniture clusters have appropriate potential for development that they have been not noticed until know. Results have shown that, except Tehran furniture cluster that its members aggregated in Yaft Abad, in Tehran province Eslamshahr, Rabat Karin and Shahriar have a very high potential for another furniture clusters development