The effect of phenol formaldehyde impregnation at various concentrations on quality of densified-oil palm trunk

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to improve the quality of oil palm trunk (OPT) after impregnation with Phenol Formaldehyde (PF) resin at various concentration and compression. The inner part of OPT with an average density of 0.28 g/cm3 was used as samples. The OPT was impregnated with PF (5%, 10%, 15% and 20%) by the vacuum-pressure method, then compressed by close system compression. The physical and mechanical properties including weight gain (WG), recovery set (RS), compression parallel to grain, modulus of rupture (MOR) and elasticity modulus (MOE) were examined. The results show WG after PF impregnation was 5.29-53.81% and RS value was 0.99-27.92%. The physical and mechanical properties have increased with increasing PF concentration. The density value, compression parallel to grain, MOR and MOE were 107.15-217.86%, 39.27-248.31%, 159.71-379.22% and 52.92-171.58%, respectively. The impregnation PF of 20% was the best treatment.