Properties of medium density fibreboard panels made from rubberwood and empty fruit bunches of oil palm biomass

Abstract

This study presents an evaluation of the physical and mechanical properties of medium density fibreboards produced from mixture of rubberwood from RRIM 2020 clone and empty fruit bunch fibres. The evaluations are conducted to determine variance in density, moisture content, modulus of rupture, modulus of elasticity, internal bonding, thickness swelling and water adsorption for these mixtures. The significance level of p  <  0.05 was used to determine the variations between different ratios of rubberwood and empty fruit bunch fibre blends effect on all properties studied. Most properties of medium density fibreboard panel made with 100% rubberwood fibres are significantly better than medium density fibreboard made with 100% empty fruit bunch fibres. Additional of 30% of empty fruit bunch in mixture had decreased modulus of elasticity by 148 MPa, modulus of rupture by 1.21 MPa and water adsorption by 0.05% compared to 100% rubberwood. Generally, among mixtures, panels containing less than 50% oil palm empty fruit bunch in the mixture exhibits better strength properties but lower physical properties. The dimensional stability (thickness swelling) of the panel made from the mixture of 70% rubberwood and 30% empty fruit bunch board displays the best performance among the mixture.