Self-bonding of beech veneers

Sammanfattning: This thesis presents studies on the self-bonding of veneers, and investigations into the properties of boards obtained by hot-pressing beech veneers without adhesives. The raw material is pressed at temperatures from 200 to 250ºC, at pressures from 4 to 6 MPa and pressing times from 240 to 360 s. The hot-pressing of five layers of veneers results in a self-bonded, compressed, densified board, darker than the raw material. The manufacturing process was optimised using a statistical analysis, the response surface experimental design method. The input factors were the pressing parameters and the output factors were characteristics of the product, the raw material properties being kept constant. The results showed correlations between the pressing parameters, especially temperature, as input data and the physical and mechanical properties as responses. Resistance to water absorption and swelling as well as shear strength, bending strength, and hardness were all enhanced by more severe pressing conditions. All the samples pressed at 250ºC became water-resistant while samples pressed at 200ºC delaminated rapidly in water. It was found that the colour of the edges can be used as an indication of the hardness. Chemical investigations were performed on samples taken from veneers (raw material), bond-lines and inner parts of pressed veneer. A High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) analysis was used to detect and compare the levels of water-soluble monosaccharides (glucose and fructose) in the veneer before pressing and the levels of 5-hydroxymethyl-furfural (HMF) and furfural in boards. From the results obtained in this thesis it is suggested, that besides other degraded compounds of hemicelluloses, the monosaccharides were transformed into hydroxymethyl-furfural during hot-pressing that could further participate in forming new browning compounds that are related to the bonding phenomenon. The UV spectroscopic analysis to evaluate the content of water-soluble phenols showed that the bond-line had a higher amount of conjugated phenols than the inner veneer suggesting a migration of degraded lignin towards the veneer surfaces during pressing. A CP/MAS 13C NMR study on the solid material showed that the presence of β-ether structures and methoxyl groups in lignin was higher in the bond-line, supporting the hypothesis of a migration of lignin and possibly a condensation reaction occurring at higher temperatures, explaining the water-resistance property acquired by the boards.In a comparative study, oxidative activation with hydrogen peroxide and ferrous sulfate as a catalyst was performed before pressing. Boards made from beech veneer subjected to the pre-treatment step showed a greater mass loss, a lower thickness swelling but also a somewhat lower shear strength. For beech veneers such an oxidative pre-treatment step could be used to gain water-resistant boards pressed at lower pressing temperatures or shorter times than those needed to bond untreated veneers. Scots pine veneers were found to be less suitable for self-bonding than beech veneers. Boards of Scots pine hot-pressed without the oxidative pre-treatment delaminated in water, whereas, under the same pressing conditions, boards made from pre-treated veneers showed a water-resistant bond-line.