Effect of preheat treatment on the mechanical and physical properties of particleboard

The present study was conducted to assess the effect of pre-heat treatment on the wood particle of Carpinus betulus for the manufacturing one-layer particleboard to increase dimensional stability, decrease water absorption, and improve mechanical properties. Carpinus betulus wood-particles were pre-steamed with a reactor system 160 °C at 20, 40 min. The boards with 6% phenol formaldehyde were manufactured by laboratory hot press instrument. After production of particel boards, the physical and mechanical properties including water absorption, thickness swelling, MOR, MOE, and internal bonding (IB) were tested. The results of thickness swelling, and water absorption showed that pre-heat treatment boards after 24 hours immersing in water had a significant decrease from 65.65 to 77.60%, respectively, compared to untreated boards (92.31%). After two hours of immersing, only the thickness swelling showed a significant decrease. The results showed that by increasing the amount of pre-heat treatment time to 40 min, MOE reduced to 2046 MPa, although its reduction was not significant. Pre- heat treatment caused a significant increase on the internal bond amounting to values of 0.618, 0.514 MPa.