Based on current consumption trends, crude oil as a fossil fuel will only last until the middle of the 21st century (Shafiee and Topal, 2009). In contrast there is the steadily growing global demand for it of almost 1.6 ∙ 1010 litres daily in 2018 (BP, 2019). Petrochemical industry is the second largest oil processing industry with a share of 13 % in that consumption (OCDE, 2015). By providing basic chemicals such as monomers, petrochemicals represent the beginning of the value chain in the plastics processing industry. The availability of crude oil is therefore essential for the entire plastics industry according to its current state of development. In order to avoid the threatening shortage, the use of renewable cellulose-based raw materials such as wood in the plastics processing industry have been researched for some time (Mohanty, Misra and Drzal, 2002). The use of wood veneers as a substitute for flat, inorganically fibre- reinforced semi-finished products offers an approach. The structure of wood as a fabric structure, in which cellulose fibres are embedded in a matrix of lignin and hemicellulose, is similar to the structure of fabrics or layers embedded in a plastic matrix (Tsoumis, 2009). However, the monolithic use of wood veneers as load-bearing structures is limited by the lower mechanical properties compared to inorganic fibre-reinforced semi-finished products. Furthermore, the process windows set up for the processing of petrochemically based semi- finished products can only be transferred to the processing of wood veneers to a limited extent. In order to improve integration into these processes, a multi-mateial component made of wood veneer and a plastic application is first considered. The evaluation is initially carried out on the level of basic testing samples. For this purpose, an overlap joint between a wood veneer and a plastic component is produced by injection moulding. The bond is made by using a bonding agent added to the plastic granulate. The aim of this investigation is a first validation of the possibility of processing wood veneers suitable for large-scale production in plastics industry by creating the highest possible bond strength between wood and plastic.
Keywords: wood veneer, plastics industry, bond strength
Authors
Werner Berlin
Technische Universität Braunschweig, Institute of Machine Tools and Production Technology, Braunschweig
Felix Rothe
Vicky Reichel
Jan Beuscher
Klaus Dröder
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