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Flakeboard properties as affected by flake cutting techniques

Informally Refereed

Abstract

Flakeboards were prepared from flakes obtained from disk, drum, and ring flakers, and a shaping-lathe headrig. Species used were lodgepole pine,loblolly pine, sweetgum, southern red oak, and mockernut hickory at 1.25 compression ratio and two resin contents (5% and 8%). The three-layer panels had 25 percent of the largest flakes on each surface; all other material retained on screens 1/16 inch or larger was in the core. Flakes were cut 2.25 inches long and 0.02 inch thick. The target flake length was obtained or exceeded for all but red oak and hickory flakes made in the ring flaker. Except for disk-cut flakes, the flakes were less than 0.02 inch thick. Screen analysis varied significantly among flakes and species. The ring flaker produced the most tines. Effects of species and resin content on the strength,stability, and durability of flakeboard depend on the flaker. For panels from each flaker an increase in resin content slightly increased strength and improved panel stability. Although panels were fabricated at equivalent compression ratios, the higher density species yielded panels with greater strength but these panels deteriorated most after accelerated aging. One flaker was not clearly superior to the others. Generally, the strengths and MOEs of lathe- and diskcut flake panels were similar and higher than those of the ringand drum-cut flake panels. The ring-cut flake panels had the highest IB, but the high IB did not result in lower dimensional stability measurements based on the 24-hour water-soak test. By limiting flaker evaluation to one species and certain test properties, a flaker could be chosen that would yield a panel superior to panels fabricated with flakes produced on other flakers.

Citation

Price, E.W.; Lehmann W.F. 1979. Flakeboard properties as affected by flake cutting techniques. Forest Products Journal 29(3):29-33
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/8257