Behavior of particleboard from cotton gin waste and urea formaldehyde resin against water

Abstract

In northeastern of Argentina, there are problems related to large quantities of ginning residues generated in cotton production. As an alternative, its use in the production of particleboards agglomerated with urea-formaldehyde resin, for use in construction or furniture, is proposed. Monolayer boards formed by two particle sizes, fine and coarse, respectively, different resin contents (between 11,9 % and 20,6 %), molding pressures ranging from 3 to 4,75 MPa and the presence or not of a water-repellent agent such as paraffin emulsion were evaluated. The density, swelling and absorption of the samples, saturated for 24 hs and air-dried for 7 days, were evaluated. Although the particleboards exceeded the regulatory limit for swelling, the use of finer particles, higher resin contents and molding pressures and the inclusion of paraffin allow improving the behavior of the material.