Wood flow processing is a deformation technique similar to the plastic forming of metallic materials, in which slippage between wood cells is generated as an initiation of the deformation under compression conditions. For the successful wood flow processing, it is important to control softening/hardening properties of wood, especially intercellular region which affects the deformability of a solid wood as well as strength properties after the deformation. In this study, to control such contrary behaviors of softening/hardening of wood a water-soluble phenolic resin was introduced to wood cells by means of impregnation. Water and phenol molecules existing in the wood cells and intercellular layers make wood softened at comparably lower temperature conditions, whereas at higher temperature wood gets strengthen due to curing of phenolic resin. Applying such resin-impregnated solid woods to an extrusion method, wood-plastic composites containing at least 60% wood in weight were obtained in a comparably short time. By evaluating the mechanical properties of wood-plastic composites prepared by an extrusion-type of the wood flow processing the applicability to automobile parts will be discussed.
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