Thermal Insulation Panels with Bio-Based Adhesives

Abstract

Environment friendly insulation panels were manufactured and tested made of pine wood fibers and glued with a bio-based adhesive, called dextran. The aim of this work was to determine relevant technical properties of panels fabricated with this new glue type. In the panels, the ratio of dry glue content was varied from 30% to 60% with 10% steps which runs served as comparison basis. The density of the insulation panels was set to 70 kg/m3, 100 kg/m3 and 125 kg/m3. Beside their thermal conductivity, the compression strength, the bonding strength, and the wetting angle of the adhesive were measured. With the variation of panel densities, the thermal conductivity is in a narrow range of 0.039 to 0.042 W/mK. The resistance to compression at 10% strain was measured to be 0.3 MPa, 0.35 MPa and 0.4 MPa in the panels with 70 kg/m3, 100 kg/m3 and 125 kg/m3, respectively. The wetting angle of the adhesives seemed to correlate only weakly with the bonding strength, and the glue`s wetting ability diminished with the increase of the glue content. The results seem to be competitive if compared with the traditionally used glass and rockwool, and foam insulation materials.