The preparation and application of a new formaldehyde-free adhesive for plywood

In this study, we developed a new formaldehyde-free adhesive prepared by in-situ chlorinating graft copolymerization for plywood. The main ingredients of this adhesive include maleic anhydride (MAH) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) that is MAH grafted onto HDPE (PE-cg-MAH). The reaction between this adhesive and veneer, the optimum formulation to bond veneer and the optimum hot-press conditions to prepare the plywood were investigated. A boiling water test was employed to evaluate the strength and water resistance of plywood bonded with this adhesive. The results showed that the properties of the resulting plywood using PE-cg-MAH as an adhesive can meet the standard of Type I plywood and the optimum hot-press conditions were 160–165 °C and 5 min. When the chlorine contents of PE-cg-MAH was about 3% (wt%), the plywood panels had a higher shear strength after boiling water test above the hot-press conditions.