Experimental study on the fabrication and mechanical properties of medium-density particleboards from coconut coir.

The abundance of coconut coir in the South Asian subcontinent opens an alternative to the commercially available wood-chip particleboards that are gradually increasing pressure on the natural carbon sinks or forest. The present study aims to analyze the fabrication process of medium density particle boards using widely available indigenous agricultural raw material coconut coir and analyze the mechanical properties of the fabricated boards to determine its potential. Coconut coir and binder (urea formaldehyde) resin have been used as the raw materials while examining the effects of parametric variations such as the resin percentage, and coarse layer to fine layer ratio. The crucial mechanical properties of particleboards such as tensile and compressive strength, screw withdrawal strength, thickness swelling, water absorption show satisfactory values. These properties are found to vary slightly depending on the amount of resin percentage or coarse to fine layer mass ratio. Experimental analysis shows an optimum property for a combination of 10% resin (wt) and 80%-20% coarse to fine layer mass ratio. The findings of the present study suggest that the medium density particleboard prepared from coconut coir has the potential to become suitable substitutes for commercially available boards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]