Effects of compression ratio on physical and mechanical properties of bamboo oriented strand board

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the physical and mechanical properties of a bamboo-oriented strand board (BOSB) under various compression ratios. The raw material of BOSB was betung (Dendrocalamus asper) strand that steamed and followed by rinsing with a 1% NaOH solution. BOSB with the dimensions of 30 30 0.9 cm3 were manufactured with a compression ratio of five levels i.e. 1.15; 1.25; 1.35; 1.44; and 1.54. Three layers of BOSB were made with a shelling ratio of 50:50. Phenol formaldehyde (PF) adhesive (SC=43%) was added with 8% concentration, while paraffin was used as much as 1% of the dry weight of the oven strand. Strand geometry evaluation was carried out on 100 strands randomly. The physical and mechanical properties were evaluated according to JIS A 5908-2003. The results showed that relatively homogeny strand geometry in this research was suitable to manufacture of BOSB. Increasing in BOSB compression ratio up to 1.54 increased mechanical properties. However, the increase of the BOSB compression ratio was decreased the dimensional stability. The optimum BOSB compression ratio was 1.35.