A Multifunctional Mineral Binder for Plywood Production: The Effect of Manufacturing Parameters on Bonding Quality

Geopolymers show great potential for use as binders in developing and manufacturing multifunctional wood products. The objective of this study was to improve the bonding quality of a geopolymer binder, with wood veneers, using different manufacturing parameters. To this end, we produced five layered plywood panels treated with various lay-up times (1, 5, 10, 15 min), panel compressibility values during hot pressing (5%, 10%, 15%, and 30% compression), veneer roughness values (low, medium, and high roughness), press temperatures (120, 140, and 160 °C), and veneer layouts via changing the middle layer position of plywood relative to the surface layers. The results show that the shear strength and thickness swelling were negatively influenced by increasing the lay-up time of resinated veneers and panel compressibility. Increasing the veneer roughness significantly increased the panels’ properties. Furthermore, the panels produced with a pressing temperature of 140 °C showed the best performances. The veneer layouts also significantly changed the physical and mechanical properties of the plywood panels. Generally speaking, the results obtained in this study show that improving the bonding quality of geopolymer binders with wood can be done through the manipulation of plywood manufacturing parameters.