Abstract
The deforestation of the tropical forest is one of the leading causes of global changes In the environment today. The greater part of timber used for trucks and buses is the South Sea wood that is produced In the tropical regions. For the purpose of reducing the amount of its use and preserving the environment, we have been developing a reusable and weatherproof artificial wood board which is made of polypropylene (PPj and wood powder.
The point of this development is the orientation of wood particles with a certain aspect ratio and the optimization of the compound mixture. Through Improvements In these points, we have obtained an artificial wood which is equivalent in flexural characteristics to lauan plywood According to our rigidity test and heat cycle resistance test performed for a rear gate made 01 the artificial wood it is also verified that the artificial wood causes no problem in practical use.
In addition, we examined the thixotropy of the compound and verified that this thixotropy participates profoundly In the orientation of wood particles and the formation of mechanical properties of the artificial wood