Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of

M. Sc. In Mechanical Design & Production Engineering.

SUPERVISED BY

Prof. Dr. H. I. EL-Mously Dr. H.A. Hassan

Ain shams University Ain shams University

1996

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE CONDITIONS OF

MANUFACTURE OF LUMBER-LIKE BLOCKS FROM

DATE PALM LEAVES' MIDRIBS.

A M.Sc. THESIS, SUBMITTED

BY

Eng. Taysseer A. M.

SUPERVISED BY,

Prof. Dr. Hamed EL-Mously

Dr. Hassan Ahmed Hassan

ABSTRACT

Due to shortage in local resources of wood it is important to search for other resources that could substitute solid wood. Date palm leaves' midribs (DPLN) are available as a cheap secondary product resulting from annual pruning of palms.

Air-dried DPLM of known species were converted into strips of 10 x 10 mm cross-section. Lumber-like blocks with cross-section 70 x 70 mm and length 420 mm have been produced in a test rig under 4 different levels of pressure and 3 levels of pressing time. The gluing process was conducted at room temperature using Urea-formaldehyde as a resin and citric acid as a hardener. Mechanical properties in static bending (MOR and MOE), compressive strength and shear strength parallel to grain, nail-pull and hardness were determined, the results indicated that the strength properties of DPLM blocks were comparable to those of European Redwood (the common softwood species used in Egypt). The results showed also that, there is a specific set of pressing conditions at which the strength properties attain their highest level. The conditions are 9 kg/cm 2 pressure and 1 hour pressing time. For this set of conditions the value of modulus of rupture and modulus of elasticity were found to be 70 N/mm 2 and 5915 N/mm 2 respectively.

The aforementioned findings open the possibility of manufacture of lumber-like products of any desired dimensions from DPLM as a substitute of solid wood.

Key words: Lumber-like Product, Date Palm Leaves1 Midribs, Glulam, Mechanical Properties.