Evaluation of bonding strength of some tropical wood species as a function of surface roughness

• Main Author: Tan, Hui Ling.
• Other Authors: Zhong Zhaowei
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/50097
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

For many countries, wood is widely used as a raw material in the furniture industry. Some of the commonly available tropical wood species in Singapore were evaluated. Experiments were conducted for Kapur, Meranti and Pine wood to find out the adhesion bonding strength as a function of surface roughness. The wood pieces were sanded with sandpaper of grit size 80, 100 and 240. Surface roughness of the wood pieces was recorded using Mitutoyo Surftest SJ301. Thereafter, the wood pieces were glued and the adhesion bonding strength was tested with Instron Universal Tester 5569. Density of wood was also determined. General trend of surface roughness increased as the grit size of sandpaper increased was observed for Kapur and Meranti wood. An opposing trend was found for Pine wood. The difference was caused by the initial surface roughness of wood. A trend was not determined for Kapur wood. Relationship between adhesion bonding strength and surface roughness of wood could not be clearly defined. Pine wood has the strongest adhesion bonding but was unsuitable to be used in the project because the wood failed before the adhesion bonding fails. No clear relationship between adhesion bonding strength and density of wood was found.