Promising opportunities for increasing the efficiency of construction plywood production by optimizing technological factors

The article addresses the issue of reducing energy and binder costs in the production of FSF birch plywood for construction purposes. Reducing production costs while ensuring the necessary performance standards is a competitive advantage of the material. One way to address this issue is by reducing the temperature of hot pressing (around 100°C) and the amount of phenol-formaldehyde binder (less than 100 g/m²). The experiment was conducted according to a second-order B-plan, and regression models were developed to determine the mechanical properties of plywood based on the pressing temperature, resin consumption, and the addition of modifiers such as copper acetate, resorcin, and copper resorcinate with acetic acid. The need for modifying the phenol-formaldehyde binder during low-temperature pressing is due to the low degree of polycondensation of the binder and the significant decrease in the peel strength of the plywood. The rational values of the factors in the plywood production process were obtained by analyzing the graphical dependencies and regression mathematical models of the mechanical properties of the plywood. When making plywood with a pressing temperature of 105°C, a resin consumption of 93 g/m², and a copper acetate additive content of 1%, the material has a static bending strength of 133 MPa and a peel strength of 2.2 MPa. When using 1% resorcin as a modifier and similar production processes, the static bending strength is 142 MPa and the peel strength is 2.1 MPa. Both proposed modification options (with an additive of 1% of the liquid resin mass) are cost-effective. When implemented in production, the obtained results will reduce costs and ensure the production of construction-grade plywood with the required mechanical properties.