Investigation on the production possibilities of high pressure laminate from borax and recycled papers as a cleaner product

High pressure laminate has a key role at the protection of wood-based panels. Borax and recycled papers can be used for production of high pressure laminate which may impart the multitude effects. The readily availability of waste papers and borax may be a useful alternative to expensive papers with high quality, and also can compensate the strength losses of recycled papers. The recycled paper and borax are relatively inexpensive and environmentally friendly, and this results the production of not only a cleaner product but also provides an excellent performance against applied load, humidity and high temperature. In this study, three types of waste papers including newsprint, writing and paperboard were first recycled to be used for production of high pressure laminate. Phenol formaldehyde and borax were utilized to improve the strength and fire retardancy of high pressure laminate. Bending resistance, flame resistance and water absorption of high pressure laminate samples were tested. The results of the experiments showed that high pressure laminate made of recycled newspaper and borax had a superior performance when compared to samples that made from writing paper and paperboard. For example, an increase up to 1.4 times was observed in the bending resistance. The mixing of borax with resin increased the strength of high pressure laminate at 95 percent confidence level. The amount of water absorption after 2 h, bending resistance, glowing time and char length of high pressure laminate with recycled newspaper and borax were equal to 14%, 41 mNm, 37 s and 0.7 cm, respectively. The bending strength of coated particleboard with this overlay increased up to 1.5 times. High pressure laminate produced from recycled paper and borax was introduced as an environmentally acceptable product.