Development of medium density particle board from Lantana camara

• Main Authors: Ramkumar, V. R., Thanigai, K., Kiran, M. C., Prakash, V., Dubey, Manoj Kumar
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Particle board; Raw materials; Urea formaldehyde resins
• ISSN: 0094-243X; 1551-7616
• DOI: 10.1063/5.0179005

Lantana camara, a destructive invasive weed, has become a matter of concern as it is occupying a vast area of forest land in India posing a threat to the ecosystem bringing down the efficiency of forests altering the biodiversity balance and reducing the yield. These issues of Lantana camara is also posing a threat in the non-forest area such as private agricultural lands necessitating often removal of this weed. Effective measures to control the invasion of lantana is the need of the hour. Utilization of this weed in value added products such as particle board can be considered as beneficial as apart from utilizing the weed it also helps in achieving objectives of environmental and socio-economic concerns by way of employment generation at various levels i.e. from daily wage workers to skilled workers. In this study, a three-layered particle board was developed from Lantana camara by flat press technology using urea-formaldehyde resin as binding material. The developed composite was evaluated as per IS 3087 and was found to be conforming to the requirements of the Grade-2 particle board. This study advocates the utilization of Lantana camara for particle board production as in doing so not only the weed is extracted but also the deficit in the demand and supply of raw material for the particle board industry can also be countered.