Experimental Investigation of Mechanical and Physical Properties on Epoxy Resin with Wood Timber for Furniture Application

Abstract

ABSTRACT Composites are attracting the attention of researchers nowadays because of their strength-to-stiffness ratio. The development of wood particle composites reinforced for practical purposes has been successfully attempted. This paper focuses on the application of an epoxy/hardener ratio with wood particle-reinforced polymers to develop high-strength wood composites. The percentage of wood particles in the composition varied as follows: 5, 15, and 25 wt%, with epoxy/hardener ratios of 5:0.3, 10:1, and 5:0.8. Appropriate surface modifications were made by different treatments with 0.6, 0.8, and 1 g of NaOH in 10 liters of distilled water and 0.2% KMnO4 for better adhesion of particles and epoxy. Flexural strength, impact strength, water absorption, and SEM were investigated. Nine experiments were investigated based on the Taguchi orthogonal array blend design. The composite was successfully fabricated using the conventional hand lay-up technique. The highest mean S/N ratio considered was found for wood content composition (15%), epoxy resin to hardener ratio (10%), and NaOH (1%), i.e. the main factors affecting the mean flexural and impact strength were the wood particle contents in the matrix. Water absorption was investigated. Water absorption was found to increase with wood particle content.