Pine bark tannin adhesive formulations

Interest in use of condensed tannins as components of adhesive formulations began about three decades ago. While research studies have been carried out in widely scattered laboratories around the world, three major areas of activity can be distinguished. These are 1) development of bark extracts and commercial production facilities on the west coast of North America, 1953 to 1975 2) application of tannins in adhesive formulations in South Africa based on indigenously produced mimosa (wattle) tannin, early 1970 s to the present and 3) a resurgence of interest in pine bark as raw material for tannin-based adhesives, beginning in the middle 1970 s. Each of these activities has been characterized by parallel efforts on structural identification of the tannins and development of unique methods for incorporating the isolated tannins into adhesives. 

Although preliminary studies suggest that face-laminations can be obtained using adhesives made from condensed tannins that pass the standards of the American Institute of Timber Construction (< ), less is known about how to formulate adhesives using these materials for end-jointing of wood. This study, funded by the USDA Small Business Innovation Research Program, was undertaken to develop adhesive formulations containing 50% of sulfite extracts obtained from the bark of southern pine trees and demonstrate their use in... 

Research directed to the use of bark extracts from various species of pines has continued despite the marked reduction in prices for petroleum in the late 1970s and early 1980s. A number of new plywood adhesive formulations based on extracts of Pinus radiata have been described recently. Weissmann and Ayla (253) used sulfonated tannin extracts at 40% solids and fortified these extracts with a phenol-formaldehyde resin (Kauresin 260 produced by BASF) at levels to 10% to 50% by weight of solids. Both paraformaldehyde and hexamethylenetetramine were examined as aldehyde sources. Exterior grade plywood bonds were obtained at 10% and 30% fortifying levels. 

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