Utilization of bark flours as additive in plywood manufacturing

Increasing demand for wood based panel products and shortage of wood as raw material have triggered many efforts to utilize residues generated annually by the forest industries including a large portion of bark in panel production. In this study, the effects of using bark flours as additives obtained from different wood species (walnut, chestnut, fir and spruce), having much polyphenol content, on some physical and mechanical properties and formaldehyde emission of plywood panels were examined. Wheat flour, which has been used widely as additive in plywood manufacturing, served as control. Plane tree (Platanus orientalis) logs were obtained for veneer manufacturing. Urea formaldehyde (UF) resin with 55 % solids content was used as adhesive. The bonding shear strength, bending strength, modulus of elasticity (MOE), density, equilibrium moisture content and formaldehyde emission of plywood panels were determined according to related standards. It was found that the use of flours obtained from the barks of chestnut and fir trees in the glue mixture decreased the formaldehyde emission of panels. The bonding strength values of the test panels made using the glue mixture including the flour of walnut and spruce barks as additive were lower than those of the panels with adhesive containing the flour of fir and chestnut barks. The panels manufactured with adhesives including the flour of fir bark gave the highest bending strength and modulus of elasticity values.