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EFFECT OF SOLID CONTENT OF ADHESIVE ON THE COMPRESSION STRENGTH

OF FINGER JOINTED SECTIONS

Article  in  Indian Forester · July 2013

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Indian Forester, 139 (7) : 590-593, 2013 ISSN No. 0019-4816 (Print)
http://www.indianforester.co.in ISSN No. 2321-094X (Online)
EFFECT OF SOLID CONTENT OF ADHESIVE ON THE COMPRESSION STRENGTH OF FINGER JOINTED SECTIONS

C.P. SINGH, SACHIN GUPTA, C.M. SHARMA AND KISHAN KUMAR V.S.

Forest Products Division, Forest Research Institute

New Forest, Dehradun (Uttarakhand)
ABSTRACT
An experiment was conducted to assess the effect of solid content of urea formaldehyde (UF) adhesive on the
compression parameters of finger jointed sections of Eucalyptus wood. Three concentrations designated as UF1, UF2
and UF3 had solid contents of 36.8 %, 44.9 % and 57.6 % respectively. All three concentrations showed good efficiency
under compression parallel to grain when small sections were joined with finger jointing. The study illustrated that a UF
concentrations at 36.8 % to 57.6% solid content range can perform equally well when eucalyptus sections are joined
with the finger profile used in the study.
Key words : Finger joint, Urea formaldehyde, Compression parallel to grain, Eucalyptus, Solid content.

Introduction precious wood material. The strength of a finger joint for

Urea-formaldehyde (UF) resin is a major
commercial adhesive, especially within the forest
products industry. It offers a number of advantages when
compared with other adhesive systems. The cost of urea
formaldehyde adhesives among the synthetic resins is
low. Due to this, UF resin has been used in large scales in
the wood industry for bonding purposes as well as for
panel products (Selllers and George, 1991). It is also the
most widely used adhesive in powder form by the wood
industries. UF needs a suitable hardener to be added to
recommence the chemical reaction during the gluing
stage. The glue line is water resistant up to temperatures
of nearly 800C.
The gel time of the UF resin is reported to decrease
with decreasing viscosity (Xing et al., 2006). This is
because of the fact that, more water in the system dilutes
the curing reactions and acts as an energy barrier to resin
curing. Therefore, cure rate decreases with decreasing
solid content and this results in a longer gel time when
the solid content is less. Thus it is important to control
the moisture content of the adhesive during
manufacture of wood composite products.
It is also reported that water uptake affects
physical, mechanical, thermal and structural properties
of polymer materials and in the case of UF, the moisture
uptake, dry time and elongation break reduces with
increasing viscosity whereas the melting point increases
with viscosity (Hu et al., 2001; Nogueria et al., 2001;
Osemeahon et al., 2008).
Finger jointing of short pieces of timber has
attracted the solid wood industry in a big way as it
contributes heavily towards reduction of wastage in
a given set of finger parameters mainly depends upon
the properties of adhesive. The most important property
of adhesive is viscosity (which itself is a function of the
solid content of the adhesive) on which strength of a joint
is dependent. This parameter, along with mole ratio,
catalyst, etc. are manipulated for bringing about optimal
performance (Park et al., 2002).
Eucalyptus tereticornis has been classified as a
moderate timber with respect to its weight, strength and
toughness (Sekhar and Rajput, 1968). Working quality
index of this timber has been reported to be comparable
to teak (Jaitely et al., 1983). Its timber finds use in rural
and urban India for furniture making, as rafters, beams,
purlins, etc. It is reported to have strength indices
comparable to teak (Luna, 2005).
This paper reports the results of a study on the
compression parallel to grain parameters of Eucalyptus
tereticornis when finger jointed with three different
concentrations of UF adhesive.
Materials and Methods
Planks 2.5 inches thick of Eucalyptus, pre-
seasoned up to moisture content (MC) of 9.93±0.63 %
were used to prepare samples for the study. The sections
were selected from visually inspected defect free
portions.
Three concentrations of UF adhesive were
prepared from a commercial grade UF resin powder by
mixing it with 2% of ammonium chloride (NH4Cl)
hardener and making aqueous solutions with 36.8%,
44.9% and 57.6% solid contents. These were designated
as UF1, UF2 and UF3. Fingers were profiled on a
commercial finger shaper. The finger parameters of the

Urea formaldehyde adhesive at 36.8 to 57.6 % performed efficiently good under compression parallel to
grain in jointing Eucalyptus sections.
2013] Effect of solid content of adhesive on the compression strength of finger jointed sections 591

cutter used were 21 mm (length), 7 mm (pitch) and 1.4
mm (tip width) with slope of 1 in 10.
The adhesive was applied to the profiled fingers
using a brush. Immediately after adhesive application,
the sections were mated and pressed on a pneumatic
pressing vice at an end pressure of 6 MPa. The sections
were made in such a way that the joint occupied the
central position of the specimen. The jointed samples
were left at room temperature for curing for at least 48
hours. Before performing the compression test, the
samples were given a light planing to get rid off any
adhesive ooze out. The samples were dimensioned to
approximately 5x5 cm2 cross-sections and 20 cms in
length as per IS: 1708(1986).
The compression tests of the jointed samples were
carried out on a universal testing machine. Continuously
increasing load was applied axially on the end surface of
the specimen such that the movable head of the testing
machine moved at a constant rate at 0.6 mm/min. The
effective length 15 cm was used in the test. This
procedure was continued till the maximum load was
observed. Deflections under compression were
recorded at suitable intervals. From the load deflection
graph, load and deflection at proportional limit were
noted. The parameters, compression stress at limit of
proportionality (CSLP), maximum crushing stress (MCS)
and modulus of elasticity (MOE) were calculated for each
sample with the formulae given in Table 1.
Results and Discussion
The data obtained from the compression tests
performed on jointed and unjointed samples of
eucalyptus are given below in Table 2. The efficiencies of
the jointed samples with reference to the value of the
unjointed clear wood samples (represented as
percentages) are also given for comparison. For this the
clear wood values were taken from earlier report on the
samples for the same lot used in the study (Kishan Kumar
et al., 2010).
Table 2 suggests that the compression parameters
studied may have dependence on the concentration of
the adhesive used. All the three parameters show
highest values with UF3 which had the highest resin solid
content used. The efficiencies range from about 72 % to
more than 100 % indicating the feasibility of using finger
jointed sections with UF adhesive in any of the
concentrations studied in place of solid eucalyptus wood
for compression members, thus reducing the wastage of
short sections which is the main benefit of finger
jointing.
The maximum compression strength in the study
gave about 79-85 % strength compared to values of
unjointed sections. An efficiency of 73.5% has been
reported for this species with Poly Vinyl Acetate (PVA)
adhesive with the same finger profile used in this study
(Kishan Kumar et al., 2010). With the better UF adhesive,
a better performance of the joint is expected. A high
retention of strength in compression parallel to grain
after finger jointing is often reported. Finger jointed
studs for use in light frame construction reportedly
showed 89% strength in compression parallel to the
grain with respect to unjointed studs (Erickson, 1941).
In radiata pine, 2x4 inch2 sections with centrally located
1-1/16 inch long fingers gave 90% strength in
compression parallel to grain compared to clear wood
(Stanger, 1965). In Pinus wallichiana efficiencies ranging
from 88% to 105% have been reported with UF adhesive
and three different finger profiles (Pruthi et al., 1985). In
the same study, the crushing stress at limit of
proportionality showed 60% to 71% efficiencies whereas
in the present study this ranged from 72% to 77%. The
increased efficiency may be mainly attributed to the
different finger profile used in the present study.

Table 1: Formulae for compression parallel to grain test

S.No Mechanical property Unit Formula
2
1 Compression stress at limit of proportionality (CSLP) kg/cm P/A
2 Maximum crushing stress (MCS) kg/cm2 P’/A
2
3 Modulus of elasticity (MOE) kg/cm Pl/AD
Where
P - Load at elastic limit in kg; A- Cross-sectional area in cm2; P'- Maximum crushing load in kg; l - Effective length in cm; D - Deflection at elastic limit in cm

Table 2 : Means of compression parameter and the efficiencies of jointed samples

Section UF No. of CSLP Efficiency MCS Efficiency MOE Efficiency
2 2 2
Concentration samples (Kg/cm ) (%) (Kg/cm ) (%) (Kg/cm ) (%)
Clear wood* - - 272.5 500.0 85789
Finger jointed UF1 6 196.2 72.0 395.4 79.1 83326 97.1
UF2 9 198.2 72.7 416.5 83.3 82912 96.7
UF3 10 210.2 77.1 426.8 85.4 94583 110.3
*Source: Kishan Kumar et al. (2010)
592 The Indian Forester [July

Table 3: ANOVA of concentration effects on the three compression parameters

Dependent Variable Source of variation df Mean square F Sig. (p)
(Compression parameter)
CSLP Concentration 2 496 0.36 0.701
Error 22 1372
MCS Concentration 2 1862 1.38 0.273
Error 22 1353
MOE Concentration 2 397451910 1.86 0.179
Error 22 213596885

In the case of modulus of elasticity (MOE), the
efficiencies obtained in the present study are in the 96 to
110 % range, showing that the three concentrations
studied give near to clear wood elasticity after finger
jointing. The fact that MOE under compression give high
efficiencies is also often encountered. In the case of
radiata pine, the modulus of elasticity did not differ
greatly from clear material (Stanger, 1965). The
efficiencies of MOE reported for P. wallichiana were in
99 % to 110% range (Pruthi et al., 1985).
To understand the effect of the adhesive
concentration used, the data on the compression
parameters of sections joined with UF1, UF2 and UF3
were analysed using SPSS at 95% confidence interval.
The results are summarized in Table 3.
Table 3 illustrates that the three UF concentrations
used do not result in significant differences in any of the
compression parameters of the jointed sections. The p
values obtained for all the three parameters are > 0.05
indicating that the treatments (solid contents) are
ineffective in producing differences in the strength of the
joint. This is in spite of the fact that the maximum solid
content has contributed to the maximum values for each
parameter. To clearly understand the pattern, Duncan's
subsets were formed for the mean values of all the three
parameters. It was found that with a particular solid
content, the mean values of the compression
parameters were grouped under one group.
Thus the strength of the finger jointed sections
under compression parallel to grain are independent of
the solid contents of the UF adhesive used in this study.
Conclusions
The study illustrates the use of urea formaldehyde
adhesive in making effective finger joints of eucalyptus
wood for utilization where compression is the prime
concern. Neither the maximum compression strength
nor the MOE show a concentration effect. From the
results it can be inferred that a solid content in the range
of 36.8% to 57.6% will yield almost equal strength values
with the finger profile used in the study when using
Eucalyptus wood for compression applications.

Acknowledgements
The authors place on record the help rendered by the staff of WWF discipline in making the samples. The help in
conducting the compression measurement by the staff of TM Discipline is highly appreciated. The encouragement by
Head, Forest Products Division during the study is gratefully acknowledged.
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