COMPARISON OF DENSIFIED SENGON AND MAHANG BOARDS AT 43% DENSIFICATION TARGET, 150ºC TEMPERATURE, AND 6.0 MINUTE PRESSING TIME

Abstract

This research used sengon and mahang wood. Sengon was taken as a representative of plantations and Mahang was taken as representative of natural forests. Sengon and Mahang possess low density, therefore it requires strength improvement. One of the methods used is densification. The study used the parameters of the previous research which were considered optimal. This research used 3.5 cm initial thickness, 6 minutes densification time, 150oC temperature, and initial treatment by boiling for 45 minutes. Research result exhibited an increased density in sengon and mahang’s radial and tangential plane with a percentage of 50%. The Dunnet test results on radial plane parallel press and perpendicular press, as well as on tangential plane parallel press and perpendicular press, exhibited a significant hardness increase compared to the control board. Furthermore, the compressive strength parallel to sengon and mahang densified board fiber is higher compared tocontrol board fiber.Sengon board displayed an increase of 73.75% on the radial board plane and 97.58% on the tangential board plane. Mahang board displayed a lower increase of 39.05% on the radial board plane and 43.00% on the tangential board plane.

Keywords

• Densification
• density
• hardness
• compressive strength parallel
• fiber