AGRO-LUMBER: UTILIZATION OF OIL PALM TRUNK FOR NEW LUMBER MATERIAL

摘要

It has been widely projected that Malaysia will face wood timber shortage in the near future. The anticipated shortage of log supply in the new millennium needs extensive applied research study on the 'agro-lumber' for an alternative but viable source of agro-wastes raw material. Non-utilized oil palm trunks could possibly be utilized for the existing as well as future wood-based industry. The research was to utilize oil palm trunk for the making of new wood material by using phenol formaldehyde resin. The air-dried oil palm trunk was injected with phenol formaldehyde resin for 5 hours. The resin injected palm trunk was hot-pressed for 10 minutes and cold-pressed for 24 hours. Mechanical (flexural and impact) and physical (density, water absorption, and thickness swelling) tests were studied and the results were compared with samples from Rubber wood. In general, the product exhibited good mechanical and physical properties and comparable with the wood lumber.