Hybrid Sandwich Particleboard Made with Sugarcane, Pínus Taeda Thermally Treated and Malva Fibre from Amazon

A multilayer particleboard panels, consisted of sugarcane bagasse reinforced composite as core material and hybrid composites made with Pinus taeda particles and Malva fibres as facing materials, were designed and evaluated in this work. Tukey test was used to identify the effect of the facing material, considering different combinations of Pinus taeda particles and Malva fibres, on the bulk density, thickness swelling, flexural strength, flexural stiffness and X-ray densitometry. A spray-up process was used to spread castor oil based polyurethane resin upon the dispersive phases followed by a hot compaction at 100oC. The particleboards were classified as medium density panels in accordance to the Brazilian, American and Canadian Standards. All treatments reached the minimum strength except for elastic modulus. Tukey test demonstrated the flexural strength and modulus responses for all treatments were statistically similar. Hybrid particleboard consisted of 75% of Pinus taeda wood and 25% of Malva fibres revealed a promising sustainable material for furniture industries, combining strength, low-cost and lower thickness swelling values.