Empirical correlations between test methods of measuring formaldehyde emission of plywood, particleboard and medium density fiberboard

Abstract

Since different test methods of measuring the formaldehyde emission (FE) from wood-based composite panels have been used for different countries and regions, this study attempted to establish empirical correlations between three test methods (i.e., 24-hour desiccator, 1 m3 chamber, and perforator) for plywood (PLW), particleboard (PB), and medium density fiberboard (MDF), particularly emphasizing on correlations between the 24-hour desiccator and the 1 m3 chamber method. The desiccator method found statistically high correlations with other two methods, resulting in regression coefficient values ranging from 0.96 to 0.88 for PLW, PB, and MDF samples. In particular, the desiccator method had an empirically high correlation with the 1 m3 chamber method that had been adopted as the reference method of comparing regionally different test methods of measuring the FE of wood-based composite panels by the ISO/TC89.