Comparison of the pressing behaviour of wood particleboard and strawboard

To improve the understanding of strawboard manufacturing processes, mat pressing behaviour of wood particleboard and strawboard bonded with urea formaldehyde resins were experimentally investigated and compared in terms of mat compressibility, transverse permeability, mat pressure, core temperature, core gas pressure and vertical density profile. The results have shown that straw particles are much more compressible and therefore require less platen pressure for pressing. Compared to wood particle and refined straw particle mats, hammer milled straw mats have low permeability and subsequently show high core gas pressure and high maximum core temperature during hot pressing, in addition to large differential densities between surface and core layers in the final pressed boards. It is recommended that a slower press closing rate and longer press opening time be used to develop the strawboard pressing schedule.