• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.133-144
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• 2023

Densification is an effective method for improving the physical and mechanical properties of low-density wood. However, the set-recovery of dimensions was found to be the problem of densified wood due to low fixation during the densification process. Alkali pretreatment before densification is thought to be a modification process to improve the dimensional stability of densified wood. In this research, the wood samples used were boiled in a 1.25 N sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution at different times, followed by densification for 5 h at 100℃. The alkali pretreatment for 1, 3, and 5 h of boiling increased the dimensional stability of densified woods and anti-swelling efficiency values were 8.52%, 63.24%, and 48.94%, respectively. The boiling of wood in NaOH solution decreased the holocellulose content, as well as lignin to a lesser degree, and a lower crystallinity index was observed. The lower hydroxyl groups and a higher proportion of lignin in treated samples seem to have contributed to the high dimensional stability detected.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.418-424
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• 2019

Densification is a process for improving the strength properties of wood from the felling of young trees, which is a common harvest practice in community forests. A series of experiments was conducted to refine the process with particular regard to the determination of suitable pretreatment and treatment conditions. Samples of pine and gmelina measuring $23cm(L){\times}20cm(W){\times}2cm(T)$ underwent pretreatment through immersion in a 1:1 $CH_3COOH-H_2O_2$ solution at concentrations of 15%, 20%, and 30%. Samples pretreated with the 20% solution showed the greatest improvement in strength; further experiments were conducted to determine the optimum treatment conditions in terms of temperature and duration following immersion. Test samples with the same dimensions as those in the pretreatment experiment were soaked in a 1:1 20% $CH_3COOH-H_2O_2$ solution and warmed in a water bath. The test samples were then individually hot pressed to the target thickness, which was 30% less than the original thickness and held at $150^{\circ}C$ or $170^{\circ}C$ for 15 or 30 minutes. The treated samples were cut for an analysis of their density, recovery of set, and bending strength. Pine and gmelina exhibited the best characteristics after treatment at $150^{\circ}C$ for 30 and 15 minutes, respectively. The results suggest that the modified densification process had increased the bending strength of the wood, but the temperature and duration of treatment must be carefully considered for different wood species.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.458-471
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• 2020

Effect of pre-treatment and compression ratio on specific gravity (SG) and dimensional stability improvement of three lesser-used wood species from natural forest area of North Kalimantan Province, Indonesia had been investigated. Hot soaking at 80℃ for 3 hours within 2 and 5% of boron solution was applied as pre-treatment, while compression ratio applied was 20 and 40% from the initial thickness. Densification was conducted using hot pressing machine at 30 kg/㎠ of pressure and 160℃ of temperature for 15 minutes. Specific gravity was measured gravimetrically, while dimensional stability was evaluated through thickness swelling and water absorption as the indicator. Results show that SG of densified wood was influenced by wood species and compression ratio, but not by pre-treatment applied; while dimensional stability was influenced by wood species, compression ratio, and pre-treatment. Specific gravity and water absorption of densified wood was improved significantly. Specific gravity increased 28.86-63.03%, while water absorption decreased 12.80-15.89%. Thickness swelling of 20% densified wood was lower than that of 40% densified wood.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.381-391
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• 2023

Densification is a technique used to improve biomass quality in wood pellet manufacturing and torrefaction treatment. In this study, the effects of torrefaction on the quality of Calliandra wood pellets were investigated, and pellets of Calliandra wood (Calliandra calothyrsus) and bark were evaluated. The study was conducted using a completely randomized design with two treatment factors, namely torrefaction temperature (250℃ and 300℃) and torrefaction duration (30, 45, and 60 min). The results showed that the interaction between temperature and torrefaction duration significantly affected the compressive strength, proximate value, and calorific value of the torrefied Calliandra wood pellets. An increase in the temperature and torrefaction duration decreased the compressive strength, moisture content, volatile matter content, and ash content of the torrefied Calliandra wood pellets. Conversely, the calorific value of Calliandra wood pellets increased with increasing temperature and torrefaction duration. The best-quality Calliandra wood pellets were produced at a torrefaction temperature and duration of 300℃ and 60 min, respectively. In terms of important quality parameters, ash content of 0.90% and calorific value of 6,303.80 cal/g were observed, which complied with the quality standards of Indonesian National Standard 8675:2018 and Deutsche Industrie Norm 51731.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.196-205
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to investigate a method for improving the physical and mechanical properties of laminated board made from oil palm trunk (OPT). The effects of pretreating the lamina with heat-pressure and altering the lamina composition of the laminated board were investigated. The outer third of OPT in cross-section had high-density wood, while the underlying third had low to medium density. The hot press was applied to pretreat the lamina that had low to medium density. The lamina were 1.5 cm in thickness, 5 cm in width, and 65 cm in length. The hot press was applied at 2.94 MPa or 4.41 MPa at 150 ℃ for 60 minutes, and the target thickness of the lamina was 1 cm. The three layers of the laminated board samples were bonded with isocyanate adhesive at a glue spread of 300 g/㎡ and cold pressed at 0.98 MPa for 3 h. The laminated board samples were tested according to Japanese Agricultural Standard (JAS) 234-2003. The results showed that the densification of the inner lamina did not significantly affect the physical-mechanical properties of the laminated board produced. However, the laminated board made with high-density laminas for the outer layers fulfilled the JAS 234-2003 standard for the modulus of elasticity and the modulus of rupture.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.842-851
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• 2016

The objective of this study was to improve physical and mechanical properties of soft-inner part of oil palm trunk (S-OPT) after impregnation with phenol formaldehyde (PF) resin and densification by close system compression (CSC) method. Effect of different methods of PF resin impregnation (i.e., no vacuum-pressure, vacuum, and vacuum-pressure) was evaluated. The results showed that PF resin impregnation and CSC significantly improved the physical and mechanical properties of S-OPT up to: (1) 176% in density; (2) 309% in modulus of rupture (MOR); (3) 287% modulus of elasticity (MOE); and (4) 191% in the compressive strength. Physical and mechanical properties of S-OPT showed their best performances when PF resin impregnated with vacuum-pressure method as shown by higher weight gain, density, MOR, MOE, compressive strength, and lower recovery of set due to better penetration of PF resin into S-OPT. Combining PF resin impregnation and densification by CSC method could be a good method to improve physical and mechanical properties of S-OPT.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2012

Densified fuels from biomass are widely used in North America and Europe as a regenerable and clean bioenergy. In this study, the fuel characteristics and densification characteristics of Japanese larch and Hyunsasi poplar were studied using a piston-type briquetting machine. The effects of pressure, pressure holding time, species, and particle size on briquette characteristics were studied. At room temperature, the highly densified briquettes of Japanese larch and Hyunsasi poplar can be produced at a compression pressure of 110~170 MPa. The produced briquettes have densities between 0.66 and 0.94 g/$cm^3$ after 28 days of storage at room temperature. The optimum pressure holding time was found to be 12 seconds. There is a linear increase in pressure with increase in density. The densities of briquettes from Japanese larch were higher than those of briquettes from Hyunsasi poplar. Also, the coarser particle size resulted in higher densities in briquettes than the finer particle size.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.671-681
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• 2017

Oil palm trunk (OPT) is a potential source of biomass for the production of biopellet. In the present research, biopellet were prepared from the meristem part of 25 years old OPT with various percentages of its bark (0, 10, and 30%). The highest biopellet durability was found for biopellet produced at $130^{\circ}C$ of pelletizing temperature with 30% bark content. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of biopellet showed the weak of particle bonding due to the low pelletizing pressure. The moisture content, unit density, ash content, and caloric value of OPT-based pellets were 3.55-5.35%, $525.56-855.23kg/m^3$, 2.76-3.44%, and 17.89-19.14 MJ/kg, respectively. The combustion profiles obtained by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) seemed to be unaffected by the bark content on. Differential thermal analysis of TGA curve indicated different pyrolysis characteristic of hemicellulose, cellulose, and lignin.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.172-183
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• 2016

Densification of the inner part of oil palm trunk (OPT) by the close system compression (CSC) method was performed in this study. The effects of the compression temperature and time on the anatomical, physical and mechanical properties of OPT were evaluated. The inner part of OPT with an initial average density of $0.3g/cm^3$ was used as samples. Oven-dried samples were immersed in water and vacuumed until fully saturated and then compressed by CSC at 120, 140, 160 or $180^{\circ}C$ for 10, 20, 30 or 40 min. The anatomical characteristics of transverse and radial sections before and after compression were compared by optical microscopy. The physical and mechanical properties, including the density, recovery of set (RS), modulus of elasticity (MOE), modulus of rupture (MOR), and compression parallel to grain were examined. It was observed that the anatomical characteristic of the inner part of OPT (i.e., vascular bundles, vessels, and parenchyma tissue) became flattened, fractured, and collapsed after compression by CSC. The RS decreased with increasing compression temperature and time. The lower RS indicated high dimensional stability. The physical and mechanical properties (i.e., density, MOR, MOE, and compressive strength) of the inner part of OPT increased with increasing compression temperature and time. Compression by the CSC method at $160^{\circ}C$ for 40 min was the optimum treatment.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.9-22
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• 1992

The aim of this research was to investigate physical and mechanical properties of various composition panels, each fabricated with a ratio of fiber to particle of 2 to 10. Type A consisted of fiber-faces and particle-core in layered-mat system. Type B consisted of fiberboard-faces on particleboard-core. Type C consisted of fibers and particles in mixed-mat system. The results obtained from tests of bending strength, internal bond, screw holding strength and stability were as follows: 1. The bending strength and internal bonding of both the Type A panel and the Type B panel were higher than those of the Type C panel and three-layered particle board. 2. The mechanical properties of the Type C panel showed the lowest values of all composition methods. It seems that the different compression ratios of the particle and fiber interrupted the densification of the fibers when hot pressed. 3. The dimensional stability of layered-mat system panels consising of fiber-faces and particle-core was better the than control particleboard. 4. In composition methods of particle and fiber, layered-composition method was more resonable than mixed-composition. The Type B panel had the highest mechanical properties of all the composition types. 5. The Type A panel was considered the ideal composition method because of its resistance to delamination between the particle-layer and the fiber-layer and because of its lower adhesive content and more effective manufa cturing process.