1. Engineered Composite Building Products
Dilpreet Bajwa
James Helphrey

2. What are Engineered Composite Products ?
Engineered composite products can be defined as products consisting of a combination of a smaller components to make a structural product designed using engineering methods. An alternative to traditional sawn lumber.

3. Why use Engineered Composite Building Products ?
Variety of Wood Sources
Performance Standard
Uniform Properties
Efficient use of Resources
Economics

4. Composite Materials Fiberboard (low, medium and high density)
Hardboard/Particleboard
Oriented strandboard (OSB)
Laminate strand lumber
Glue laminate beams
FRP-Reinforced Glulam Beams
Natural fiber polymer composites

5. Type of Engineered Materials
Veneer Based
Plywood
Laminated Veneer Lumber
Parallel Strand Lumber

6. Laminates Glue Laminated Timber Overlayed Materials
Laminated Wood-nonwood Composites

7. Laminate Manufacturing

8. Structural Composites
Glue Laminated Beams
FRP Reinforced Glulam Beams
Parallel strand lumber
Laminated strand lumber

9. Fiber and Particle based Products

10. Wood-NonWood Composites
Wood Fiber-polymer Composites
Inorganic-bonded Composites
Wood Fiber-Agricultural Fiber Composites

11. Grade Stamps for Plywood and OSB
Courtesy of TECO and APA

12. Adhesives for Bonding Curing Types
Phenol - Formaldehyde – Construction Plywood/OSB
Urea - Formaldehyde – Particle Board, MDF
Melamine - Formaldehyde – Decorative Laminates, Paper Coatings
Isocyanates – Composites from Strands
Bio-Based – Proteins, Glues
VOC Emissions – Laminated lumber

13. Laminate Flooring Issues
Lumber Liquidators stops selling Chinese laminates
Reacts to concerns over levels of formaldehyde in laminate flooring
Published: May 08, :30 PM

14. Important Physical and Mechanical Properties
Density
Moisture Absorption and thickness Swelling
Linear Expansion
Modulus of Elasticity
Modulus of Rupture
Tensile Strength
Compressive Strength
Internal Bond
Impact strength
Hardness
Fastener Holding Capacity

15. Treated Wood Treatments/Preservatives Fire Resistance
Fungal Resistance
Termite Resistance
Reduced Water Absorption

16. Activity 1 – Designing a composite flooring tile and testing its impact properties
Objective – To study the how material properties and design can influence the hardness and impact strength of a laminated flooring tile.
Materials – Wood Veneer, Styrofoam sheet, Plastic Sheet , Cardboard, Glue, and impact testing jig
Method – ASTM D 1037, PS (Drop ball test)
Plot load versus deflection and note failure mode
Materials
Test 1 
Test 2 
Loads (gram)
Deflection (mm)

17. Activity 2 – Evaluating Moisture Properties
Objective – To study the moisture characteristics of different engineered materials
Materials – Five different engineered wood composite materials
Method – ASTM D 1037 (2 hour Soak)
Calculate (%) – Water Absorption (WA), Thickness Swelling (TS), Volumetric Change (VC)
Formula - % WA = (Soak wt. – Original wt.) / Original wt.*100
Materials 1 2 3 4 5
WA (%)
TS (%)
VC (%)

18. Video of engineered composite material testing http://www. youtube
Questions ??