• Journal of the Korea Furniture Society
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.379-388
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• 2013

In this study, the effect of various glass fiber (GF) contents in a shell layer and shell thickness changes on the flexural property of coextruded wood plastic composites (WPCs) in combination with three core systems (weak, moderate, and strong) was investigated. GF behaved as an effective reinforcement for the whole coextruded WPCs and GF alignments in the shell layer played an important role in determining the flexural property of the coextruded WPCs. At a given shell thickness, the flexural property of the whole coextruded WPCs was improved with the increase of GF content in shell. For core quality, when the core is weak, increase of GF content in shell led to improved flexural property of the whole composites and increase of shell thickness helped it. On the other hand, when the core is strong, the flexural property of the whole composites showed reduced features at low GF content in shell and increase of shell thickness aggravated it. This approach provides a method for optimizing performance of the coextruded WPCs with various combinations of core-shell structure and properties.

• Composites Research
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.38-42
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• 2006

Wood Plastic Composite(WPC) has been introduced as a new constructional material in Europe and North America. The maintenance-free durability against weather was accepted by customers and the environment-friendly merits ignited the abrupt increase of market size. Domestic major companies have kicked off the WPC business at the market of outdoor constructional materials. Due to the high contents of natural wood fiber, the production equipments should be modified to remove the moisture, to prevent thermal degradation and to promote output rates. Materials including functional fillers play a critical role in rheological properties, which affects the physical and mechanical properties of the last products. More research might be performed for synergy effects combined by various academic fields from mechanical and chemical engineering to polymer process and material science.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.89-95
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• 2012

In this study, we were manufactured wood flour-HDPE composites by modular co-rotating twin screw extruder with L/D ratio of 42. We was measured cone calorimeter test and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) to find the combustion characteristics and thermal properties for wood flour-HDPE composites. We then evaluated the effect of three additive-type flame retardants on fire resistance performance. The cone calorimeter test showed that the heat release rate (HRR) of untreated composites was the highest Peak HRR ($446.6kW/m^2$) as well as Mean HRR ($185.5kW/m^2$). From the TGA, it was shown that composites added flame retardants began early thermal decomposition and improved thermal stability.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.171-178
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• 2009

A comparative analysis of the hindered amine light stabilizers (HALS) and UV abosrber (UVA) and their respective photostabilizing effect on wood plastic composites (WPCs) are reported in this study. The influence of accelerated weathering on the mechanical properties of the composites and the microscopic morphology of a degraded layer on the cross section and the surface were studied. UV absorbers were more efficient at preventing composite lightening than was UV stabilizer. The amount of whitening decreased with the increase of photostabilizers. With the addition of a UV absorber (Tinuvin360), the tensile modulus and strength of the composites increased slightly. However, the addition of a light stabilizer (Tinuvin770) and a UV absorber decreased the tensile modulus and strength of the composites. After 250 and 500 hr exposure, tensile modulus and strength of the un stabilized and stabilized composites decreased. The tensile strength of UV absorber (Chimassorb81)-stabilized composites was significantly greater than that of control and light stabilizer (Tinuvin770)- and UV absorber (Tinuvin360)-stabilized composites. UV absorber-stabilized samples showed less whitening and photodegradation than control and light stabilizer-stabilized samples.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.46-53
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• 1994

This study was conducted to investigate a feasibility of manufacturing wood fiber thermoplastic composites and to evaluate their mechanical properties. Wood fiber as a potential reinforcing filler was compounded with two thermoplastics (polypropylene and high density polyethylene) in high intensity thermokinetic plastic mixer aided with a wetting agent. It was found that wood fiber thermoplastic composites could be manufactured by injection molding process. The tensile and flexural strength of injection molded specimens were improved greatly with increasing wood fiber concentration. Tensile and flexural modulus increased proportionately with wood fiber concentration. Wood fiber provided reinforcement with thermoplastics in terms of strength and modulus. However, the percent elongation at break and energy to break were reduced with increasing wood fiber loadings. Impact strength also showed similar trend.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.852-863
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• 2016

Wood-plastic composite (WPC) is a promising and sustainable material, and refers to a combination of wood and plastic along with some binding (adhesive) materials. In comparison to pure wood material, WPCs are in general have advantages of being cost effective, high durability, moisture resistance, and microbial resistance. The properties of WPCs come directly from the concentration of different components in composite; such as wood flour concentration directly affect mechanical and physical properties of WPCs. In this study, wood powder concentration in WPC was determined by Fourier transform near-infrared (FT-NIR) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The reflectance spectra from WPC in both powdered and tableted form with five different concentrations of wood powder were collected and preprocessed to remove noise caused by several factors. To correlate the collected spectra with wood powder concentration, multivariate calibration method of partial least squares (PLS) was applied. During validation with an independent set of samples, good correlations with reference values were demonstrated for both FT-NIR and FT-IR data sets. In addition, high coefficient of determination (${R^2}_p$) and lower standard error of prediction (SEP) was yielded for tableted WPC than powdered WPC. The combination of FT-NIR and FT-IR spectral region was also studied. The results presented here showed that the use of both zones improved the determination accuracy for powdered WPC; however, no improvement in prediction result was achieved for tableted WPCs. The results obtained suggest that these spectroscopic techniques are a useful tool for fast and nondestructive determination of wood concentration in WPCs and have potential to replace conventional methods.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.58-65
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• 1997

This research was carried out to evaluate the effect of process variables on mechanical properties of the wood fiber-thermoplastic fiber composites by turbulent air mixing method. The turbulent air mixer used in this experiment was specially designed in order to mix wood fiber and thermoplastic polypropylene or nylon 6 fiber, and was highly efficient in the mixing of relatively short plastic fiber and wood fiber in a short time without any trouble. The adequate hot - pressing temperature and time in our experimental condition were $190^{\circ}C$ and 9 minutes in 90% wood fiber - 10% polypropylene fiber composite and $220^{\circ}C$ and 9 minutes in 90% wood fiber 10% nylon 6 fiber composite. Both in the wood fiber - polypropylene fiber composite and wood fiber- nylon 6 fiber composite, the mechanical properties improved with the increase of density. Statistically, the density of composite appeared to function as the most significant factor in mechanical properties. Within the 5~15% composition ratios of polypropylene or nylon 6 fiber to wood fiber, the composition ratio showed no significant effect on the mechanical properties. Bending and tensile strength of composite, however, slightly increased with the increase of synthetic fiber content. The increase of mat moisture content showed no significant improvement of mechanical properties both in wood fiber - polypropylene fiber composite and wood fiber nylon 6 fiber composite. Wood fiber - nylon 6 fiber composite was superior in th mechanical strength to wood fiber-polypropylene fiber composite, which may be related to higher melt flow index of nylon 6 fiber(22g/10min) than of polypropylene fiber(4.3g/10min).

• Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.48-52
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• 2008

Waste paper plastic composites were prepared with old newspaper and old corrugated containers and mixed office waste and those properties were evaluated. The results were summarized as fellows. 1. The strength properties like as tensile and Young's modulus reveled most high level in MOW composite. 2. The coagulation of fibers in paper particle should interrupt equal dispersion of polymer and paper particle. 3. The micrograph of the surface of composites showed the most high dispersion in ONP composite.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.275-282
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• 2021

High-molecular-weight maleic anhydride-grafted polylactic acids (HMMA-g-PLA) compatibilizers were prepared by melt grafting in a twin screw extruder using di(tert-butyl-perxoyisopropyl)benzene (PK-14; as initiator), maleic anhydride (MA), and divinylbenzene (DVB). To determine the properties of the prepared HMMA-g-PLA compatibilizers, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), Melt index (MI), and back-titration analyses were performed. On increasing DVB concentration, grafting yield of HMMA-g-PLA increased but MI decreased because 𝛽-scission of PLA was restrained by the DVB, and thus, the molecular weight of HMMA-g-PLA increased. PLA-based wood-plastic composites (WPCs) were prepared using HMMA-g-PLA by melt blending through a single screw extruder. The flexural and impact strengths of WPCs compatibilized with HMMA-g-PLA were greater than those of WPCs produced without HMMA-g-PLA. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) studies indicated that increased mechanical properties were caused by excellent interfacial adhesion between PLA and wood fibers due to the addition of HMMA-g-PLA. However, rather high contents of HMMA-g-PLA reduced the mechanical properties of WPCs. We believe that lower molecular-weight of HMMA-g-PLA added as an compatibilizer, compared with PLA polymer, caused the reduction of mechanical properties.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.169-181
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• 2022

Purpose: This paper addresses a case study of developing a flame retardant wood-plastic composites (WPC) by adding tannic acid to the existing synthetic wood. The optimal mixing ratios of six components are explored to minimize the burning time using two mixture designs. Methods: In the preliminary experiment, six components are considered to find important components and their ranges. Seven D-optimal mixture design points are generated. Two points are removed for the balance of plastic components to be maintained, and the remaining five points are augmented with two basic compositions. Four components are selected to be considered in the main experiment. In the main experiment, pellets are extruded at the eight mixture design points. In-house testing of burning time is executed three times. Specimens made of pellets from two promising flame retardant compositions are sent to the accredited laboratories and tested. Results: The test results are as follows: 1) The best composition (Wood flour, Tannic acid, PE, Lubricant) = (25, 41, 10, 2) (wt%) shows the burning time of 1 second, which is 9-fold improvement compared to the the burning time of 9 seconds from the existing composition (58, 0, 10, 2) (wt%). 2) The second best composition (41, 25, 10, 2) (wt%) results in the burning time of 2 seconds. This composition is inferior to the best composition in terms of the flame retardancy, but more economical since it needs less tannic acid which is 100-fold expensive than the wood flour. Conclusion: Flame retardant compositions are found by adding tannic acid to the existing WPC employing optimal mixture designs. This case study will be helpful to practitioners who try to develop new products with additional physical properties with as small number of experimental trials as possible. Future research direction includes exploring conditions which satisfy both performance level and cost limitation simultaneously.