An innovative approach to manufacturing flexible decorative wood veneer using EVA film as adhesive and reinforcing materials

ABSTRACT

In order to solve the problems of easy cracking and poor flexibility of decorative wood veneer, a simple and efficient approach to manufacturing flexible decorative wood veneer was proposed. Ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) film was used as adhesive and reinforcing material for developing EVA film reinforced decorative wood veneer (EVA-RDV). The results showed that EVA film and Manchurian Ash decorative wood veneer could be well composited at 110 °C without special treatment. The flexibility was maintained at 4 ∼ 6 mm and the transverse tensile strength was 0.99 MPa, which was 412.5% higher than that of the original decorative veneer (DV). It was found that EVA film had better adaptability of veneer moisture content (MC). The cavity proportion was kept within 5%, and the flexibility was little affected. The surface bonding strength was maintained at a stable state of 0.8 ∼ 1 MPa (higher than the standard 0.4 MPa). Only 100 °C was needed to complete the surface decoration, and the optimal surface bonding strength reached 1.17 MPa. The water resistance of all decorative veneered Medium Density Fiberboards (MDF) met the requirements of indoor use in GB/T 15104-2006.

KEYWORDS:

• Decorative wood veneer
• EVA film
• moisture content
• surface decoration

Acknowledgement

The authors are grateful to the advanced analysis and testing centre of Nanjing Forestry University.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province [Grant Number BK20150881]; the Priority Academic Programme Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD), Innovation Fund for Young Scholars of Nanjing forestry University, China [Grant Number CX2015020]; the Starting Foundation of Nanjing Forestry University, China [Grant Number GXL024]; College Students innovation and entrepreneurship training programme project of Nanjing Forestry University [Grant Number 2020NFUSPITP0159].