Abstract
Due to poor nature properties of oil palm trunk (OPT) lumber, the OPT can be improved by thermoplastic resin impregnation. In this study, the effect of impregnation OPT with different percentages of thermoplastic resin content which is 5%, 10% and 15% acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) resin at various soaking time on the physical and mechanical of OPT was investigated. The results show impregnation of ABS resin resulted in the improvement of physical and mechanical properties of OPT compared to untreated OPT. The resin uptake of OPT treated with 15% ABS (≥16.65%) showed highest compare to 10% ABS (≥8.20%) and 5% ABS (≥3.85%). The density of OPT can be improved since the density of untreated OPT is 187 kg/m3. While, the density of OPT treated with 15% ABS at range of 211-263 kg/m3 showed the highest compared 195-239 kg/m3 for 10% ABS and 194-216 kg/m3 for 5% ABS. The presence of ABS resin increased water resistance (≥27.41%) and provide better dimensional stability (≥1.27%) compared to untreated OPT. The treated OPT resulted increase in strength compared to untreated OPT. However, the stiffness of treated OPT resulted the higher resin loading leads to reduced OPT strength and thus increase the brittleness of the OPT. These findings in this study indicated that thermoplastic resin which is ABS would be considered alternative to formaldehyde-based resin to improved properties of OPT lumber with the optimum resin content and soaking time.
Published Version
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