ABSTRACT
The particleboard industries have used a large volume of wood mainly from planted forest of Pinus, being necessary to diversify the wood species and optimize the use of raw material. One of the ways to optimize the use of this resource is the utilization of the bark in the particleboard manufacturing process. In this way, this research was developed to evaluate the physical and mechanical properties of the particleboard manufactured with the wood of Acrocarpus fraxinifolius and different proportions of the bark. The boards were manufactured with 100% of wood particles of Acrocarpus fraxinifolius and replacing the wood particles with 30%, 20% and 10% of bark, board density of 0.75 g/cm³ and 8% of urea-formaldehyde resin. The properties of board density, water absorption and thickness swelling, static bending, internal bond and screw pullout strength, were determined according to EN and NBR standards, and then compared with the standard treatment (100% Pinus taeda) and with the minimum requirements of these standards. The results indicated that Acrocarpus fraxinifolius species showed technical feasibility for particleboard production and the addition of the bark until 30% did not negatively affect the physical and mechanical properties of the boards.
Keywords:
wood panels; particleboard; Acrocarpus fraxinifolius; bark