Activation of wood surfaces for glue bonds by mechanical pre-treatment and its effects on some properties of veneer surfaces and plywood panels

Some chemical pre-treatments with chemical reagents are widely applied to wood surfaces in order to improve bonding ability, wettability and reactivate wood surfaces for glue-wood bonds. Besides these chemical treatments, some mechanical pretreatments such as sanding and planing can be applied to get a fresh surface which eliminates bonding problems and improves glue bonding of wood. In this study, 2 mm thick rotary cut veneers obtained from steamed beech (Fagus orientalis) logs were used as material. Both air-drying and oven-drying methods were used for drying veneer. After drying, the surfaces of some veneers were sanded with 100 and 180 grit sandpapers. Three-layer-plywood panels were produced from sanded and non-sanded veneers by using urea formaldehyde and phenol formaldehyde glue resins to evaluate the effects of sanding some mechanical properties of plywood. Changes in pH, surface roughness and adhesive wettability of veneers were evaluated. Wettability of veneers was assessed with contact angle measurements according to the sessile drop method. Both veneer and plywood properties investigated in this study improved clearly after the sanding process. Shear and bending strength values of plywood panels manufactured from sanded and non-sanded veneers were vary depending on glue types and veneer drying methods. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.