Effect of Species and Panel Density on Durability of Structural Flakeboard

Structural flakeboard panels made with species of sweetgum, hickories, red oaks, white oaks, and southern pines, and with a 20 percent mixture of each species group, were subjected to a series of exposure conditions. One of the exposure conditions consisted of a Xenon arc lamp with an intermittent water spray from conventional weatherometer test equipment. Other exposure conditions were the APA six-cycle and the ovendry-vacuum-pressure soak exposures. Mechanical and physical properties were determined and compared to commercial waferboard. At 50 percent RH, sweetgum, red oak, hickory, pine, and the mixed species panels all had properties similar to the commercial waferboard at a similar density (42 pcf). However, after the APA six-cycle exposure and the ovendry-vacuum-pressure soak exposure, only sweetgum retained physical properties equal to waferbaord. Experimental panels of all species groups with higher panel densities than waferboard had similar property retentions as wafer-board when exposed to the conditions in this study. None of the experimental panels performed as well as the commercial wafer-board in the weatherometer tests. White oak panels were unacceptable after all exposures.

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