Effect of thermal treatment on properties of OSB panels

The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of thermal treatment of strand particles (pre-treatment) and panels (post-treatment) on the physical and mechanical properties of OSB. The experimental design consisted of five treatments, with the evaluation of the following: two particle treatment temperatures (473.15 and 513.15 K) for a period of 60 min, thermal post-treatment of the panels produced with and without application of wax emulsion at 493.15 K for a period of 12 min, and panels without heat treatment (control). For each treatment, three panels were produced with adhesives based on phenol formaldehyde. The pressing cycle of the panels was at a pressure of 3.51 MPa, 433.15 K and 8 min. Through the analysis of the results, it was possible to draw the following conclusions: the panels produced with the particles heat-treated at 513.15 K showed the best dimensional stability. The thermal post-treatment caused a significant improvement in some of the physical properties of the panels without compromising the mechanical properties. The thermal pre-treatment provided a more pronounced effect on the panel properties than the thermal post-treatment providing improved physical properties and lower mechanical properties.