Wattle Tannin-Based Particleboard Adhesives

The development of wattle tannin-based plywood adhesives occurred concurrently with the particleboard adhesives and, although quite different adhesive properties are required to bond these two types of furnish, many of the basic premises on which their development were based are the same. A series of wattle tannin-based plywood adhesives that provide exterior bond qualities have been described in detail by Pizzi (182, 186). All recent formulations use low-molecular-weight polymers, as first suggested by MacLean and Gardner (131), rather than formaldehyde for crosslinking agents. 

Problems and facts that in the author s personal experience arise in the industrial application of tannin-based adhesives for timber sometimes indicate lack of correspondence with laboratory practice and results. These are often problems related to unusual characteristics of the adhesive itself, or of its application technique, which could not be noticed during research under laboratory conditions, but the existence of which could easily jeopardize successful implementation of laboratory technology into industrial practice. Correcting the credibility gap between research focus and industrial usage is seen as a critical step toward market expansion for these new products. Important considerations are consistency of tannins, extracts and adhesives properties due to the natural raw material variability formulation in cold-setting adhesives and application conditions (such as wood moisture and adhesive-content or pressing time) in particleboard adhesives. These problems have been overcome in use of wattle tannin-based adhesives as shown by a visual comparison of tannin-, phenolic-, and melamine-bonded particleboards exposed to the weather for 15 years and the growing use of tannin-based adhesives in other countries. 

Most of the recent efforts to develop uses for the condensed tannins have centered on their application in wood adhesives. Reviews by Pizzi (182, 186) and others (15, 78, 87, 93, 208) provide references to several hundred papers and patents on this subject. Despite world-wide research efforts on other sources of tannins, particularly since the 1972-1973 petroleum shortage, the mimosa or wattle tannins extracted from the bark of black wattle Acacia mearnsii) remain the major source of condensed tannins exploited commercially for adhesive manufacture. Of the approximately 100000 tons of wattle tannin produced annually, only about 10000 tons are used in wood adhesives, predominantly in South Africa but also in Australia and New Zealand (186). The extensive use of wattle tannins by the wood products industry of South Africa is impressive indeed, as these tannins have partly replaced phenol and resorcinol usage in adhesives for bonding of particleboard, plywood, and laminated timbers (182, 186, 213). Three factors have contributed to the success in use of wattle tannin-based adhesives, namely the comparatively high costs of phenol and resorcinol in the Southern Hemisphere, their resorcinolic functionality and low molecular weight and, perhaps most importantly, the commitment by the research and industrial communities of these countries to reduce the reliance of the forest products industry on petroleum-based adhesives. 

Table 10.3.1 Properties of exterior particleboards bonded with wattle tannin-based adhesives (136)...

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