MEASURING THE ADHESIVE BOND QUALITY OF VINYL ESTER-GLASS COMPOSITES ON NOVOLAK HMR TREATED WOOD

The objectives of this research were to 1) reduce the drying time of novolak-based HMR coupling agent, 2) reinforce wood samples with E-glasslvinyl ester resin composite using the SCRIMPThq process, 3) evaluate the durability and strength properties of the FRP-wood composites, and 4) evaluate the bonding strength of wood-to-wood bonding using vinyl ester resin. To reduce the drying time of HMR-treated wood laminates, a randomized complete three factorial experiment was used to evaluate five HMR drying times, two HMR spread rates, and two HMR solids contents. The experiment evaluated the sensitivity of the HMR treatment process to accelerated drying. The analysis resulted in the reduction of the HMR drying time to 15-20 minutes instead of the 18-24 hours usually required for epoxy resin bonded hard maple laminates. The HMR treatment process is not sensitive to changes in the HMR spread rate or the HMR solids content, but is significantly effected by the HMR drying time. The accelerated drying of HMR was applied to wood samples reinforced with E-glasslvinyl ester resin using the SCRIMPTM process. A technique was developed to appl