Technical Potency on the Use of Nypa Midrib and Its Mixture with Coconut Coir for the Manufacture of Medium-Density Fiberboard

Indonesia's tropical natural forest woods are conventionally still raw materialsfor MDF, which in potenry becomes depleted scarce.Consequently, use of alternativefibrous materials deserves thorough consideration, with theirpotencies abundant and most!J still unutilized, such as Nypa frutican midrib and coconut coir. In relevant, an experiment iuas conducted to utilizeboth kinds offiber for MD F Thosefiber stuffs were each passed through the preparation, and examination of their basicproperties (i.e.specific graviry, chemicalcomposition, andfiber dimensions and their derivedvalues).Thefibrouspulping/or MD F employed a hot semi-chemicalsodaprocess under atmosphericpressure,followeduiib the refining action to achievepulpfreenessat 600-700 ml CSF The refined pulp were then added 1vith additives (i.e. 4% alum, 3% UF-adhesive, 5% activated charcoal}, and then shaped into MD F mat using wetprocess,followed with heat treatment, hot pressing, conditioning, and ultimately the testingof MD Fproperties. Scrutiny on MD Fpf?ysico-strength properties revealed that nypa-midribfibers were moreprospectivefor MD F than coconut-coirfibers.Activated-charcoaladdition lowered the MDF'formaldebyde-emission, but decreasedits strengths. In properties, MD Fsfrom nypafibers significant!J outperformed thosefrom coconut-coirfibers in complying with the standard (15).Yet, coconut-coirjh:•rs could still beprospectivefor MDF by mixing them (pulpform) with nypa-ftberpulp at the proportion (w/2v): 25%+75'% and50%+ 50%.