Bonding performance of heat treated wood with structural adhesives

Bonding of untreated, intermediate (hydro-thermolysed) and heat treated wood with melamine-urea-formaldehyde (MUF), phenol-resorcinol-formaldehyde (PRF) and polyurethane (PUR) adhesives was studied. An industrial heat treatment process (Plato(R)) was used, which included two separate heat treatment stages and a drying stage in-between. Laminated beams having four lamellas were prepared from untreated and treated timber for mechanical testing of the bond lines. The results of the tests showed that heat treatment affected the shear strength and the delamination of the laminated wood depending on the adhesive system used for bonding. The PUR and MUF adhesives performed in a rather similar way, and better than the PRF adhesive. The shear strength of laminated wood bonded with the waterborne MUF and PRF adhesives decreased for the specimens made of hydro-thermolysed timber and decreased further for the specimens made of fully heat treated timber. The difference in adhesive bond shear strength between untreated, intermediate and fully treated wood was less obvious in the case of the PUR adhesive. Delamination of the PRF bond line decreased drastically for all the specimens made of heat treated timber.