Particleboard chamber formaldehyde

Figure 7. Effect of air change rate and loading on chamber formaldehyde concentration - particleboard.

Product tests. Clearly, the best product test is full-scale testing of finished panels under actual use conditions. This has been done (27,38) but is expensive, because several full-sized panels of each product must be pre-conditioned at constant temperature and humidity for at least a week. The next best approach is to test product samples in air chambers under standardized conditions. A summary of such methods is contained in Table I. A very large effort has been made over the last three decades world-wide to develop quick, reliable and meaningful product tests. Wittmann (16), Zartl (20), Plath (17), Verbestel (1, Neusser (21,22), Roffael (25), HUD, the U.S. Forest Products Industry (39,40), many standaraization organizations (41-43) and others have published many viable methods, but the testing involves a combination of complex factors and there is simply no single test that fulfills everybody s specific needs. Table I list some of the currently accepted test methods for formaldehyde emission from particleboard, plywood and medium density fiberboard. 

Large Scale Test Method for Determining Formaldehyde Emission from Wood Products Air Chamber Method, FTM-2" National Particleboard Assocaiton, Hardwood Plywood Association, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Federal Register, 1982, 48, 37169. 

National Particleboard Association, Hardwood Plywood Manufacturers Association, October 10, 1983. Large scale test method for determining formaldehyde emissions from wood products, large chamber method, FTM 2, Reston, VA. 

Large-Scale Test Method For Determining Formaldehyde Emissions From Wood Products — Large Chamber Method, FTM 2-1983 National Particleboard Association Gaithersburg, MD, 1983. 

The U.S.Department for Housing and Urban Development s rule 3280.308 established formaldehyde emission standards for particleboard and hardwood plywood paneling used in mobile homes. These standards took effect February 11, 1985. The certification program under this rule requires each manufacturer to develop a quality control in-plant testing program that relates to tests conducted in a large scale environmental chamber. 

Table VIII presents chamber data on underlayment particleboard, mobile decking particleboard, and industrial particleboard obtained from four different chambers identified A, B, C and D. A particleboard "set" is a specific production run of a particleboard type. The observed concentration is the formaldehyde level actually determined in the chamber for a specific loading and air change rate. "N" represents the air change rate (number per hour). The column labeled "L" is the loading (m2/m3) that the test was conducted. The column "N/L" ( m/hr) is the ratio of air change rate to the loading. Finally, the column labeled "Normalized Chamber Concentration" is the actual chamber concentration (first column) normalized to 0.3 ppm at N/L = 1.16. The 0.3 ppm chamber...

Table IX presents chamber data obtained in only one large test chamber identified as A on medium density fiberboard made at one plant. A medium density fiberboard "set" is a specific production run. The columns are labeled the same as the particleboard Table VIII described above. The "Normalized Chamber Concentration" is based on a 0.6 ppm formaldehyde concentration at an N/L ratio of 0.96. The choice of 0.6 ppm concentration is purely arbitrary. Figure 8 graphically represents the normalized formaldehyde chamber concentrations to loadings at air changes of 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5. The points which define the curves are averages of the normalized concentrations.

The H.U.D. formaldehyde standards of 0.2 ppm and 0.3 ppm for hardwood plywood paneling and particleboard, respectively, were chosen because the combination of these products at their specific loadings and air change rate would result in a chamber concentration of less than 0.4 ppm. This assumption was based on four studies. 

Newton, L. "Formaldehyde Emissions from Wood Products Correlating Environmental Chamber Levels to Secondary Laboratory Tests" International Particleboard Symposium No. 16 Washington State University, Pullman, 1982. 

After a discussion of mechanisms for the liberation and subsequent emission of formaldehyde from particleboard, methods to assess the extent of these processes are described. Data are presented for the formaldehyde emission from particleboard with various surface treatments. These data were obtained by a laboratory method and by large climate chamber measurements and show that some of the surface treatments studied constitute very efficient diffusion barriers and considerably reduce the formaldehyde emission rate. 

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