Exploratory studies on bending strength enhancement of finger jointed timber sections using high nanoclay concentrations in the adhesive

This paper tries to investigate the possibility of using nanoclay as a filler in Urea Formaldehyde (UF) adhesive to finger-joint short pieces of Melia azedarach wood. Three relatively high (4%, 5% and 6%) concentrations of nanoclay were attempted in the study. The study showed that all three concentrations were able to effectively enhance the bending strengths by 25% to 32% compared to sections joined only using UF. However, all the three concentrations resulted in similar strengths. Comparing with the bending strength of clearwood sections reported in literature, the MoR efficiency could be enhanced from 59% to 79.8% by addition of nanoclay. The addition of nanoclay did not contribute to any significant change in the MoE values. The study illustrates the advantage of using nanoclay as a filler in UF to enhance the bending strength of finger jointed sections of M. azedarach short pieces leading to value addition.