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This work examined effects of the synthesis method and melamine content of melamine-urea-formaldehyde (MUF) resins on the bond-line features (i.e. resin penetration and bond-line thickness) in plywood. Two synthesis methods (MUF-A and MUF-B) and three melamine contents (5, 10, and 20%) were employed to prepare MUF resins. The MUF-A resins at three melamine contents were prepared by a simultaneous reaction of melamine, urea, and formaldehyde, while the MFU-B resins were prepared by reacting melamine at the same levels with formaldehyde followed by urea. The results showed that higher melamine content increased the viscosity of MUF-A and MUF-B resins. The resin penetration of MUF-A resins decreased by 48% while those of MUF-B resins increased by 16% at 20% melamine content. As a result, the MUF-A resins had greater bond-line thickness than those of MUF-B resins as the melamine content increased. The MUF-B resins resulted in thinner bond-line and greater resin penetration compared to those of MUF-A resins. The results suggested that MUF-B resins prepared with 20% melamine content had a proper combination of resin penetration and bond-line thickness that could produce plywood panel with a better adhesion performance.

This paper reports a comparison of adhesion behavior of urea-formaldehyde (UF) with those of melamine-urea-formaldehyde (MU) resins in bonding wood by analyzing the results published in literatures. For this purpose, the adhesion behavior of UF resins prepared by blending low-viscosity resin (LVR) with high-viscosity resin (HVR) at five different blending and two formaldehyde/urea (F/U) molar ratios (1.0 and 1.2) was compared with those of two MUF resins synthesized by either simultaneous reaction (MUF-A resins) or multi-step reaction (MUF-B resins) with three melamine contents (5, 10, and 20 wt%). As the blending (LVR:HVR) ratio increased from 100:0 to 0:100, the viscosity and molar mass (Mw and Mn) of the blended UF resins increased while the gelation time decreased. The interphase features such as maximum storage modulus (E′max), resin penetration depth, and bond-line thickness of the UF resins increased to a maximum and then decreased as the blending ratio increased. In addition, both MUF-A and MUF-B resins also showed an increase in the Mw and Mn as the melamine content increased from 5% to 20%. However, the E′max, resin penetration depth, and bond-line thickness of the MUF resins decreased as the molar mass or melamine content increased. These results indicated that the adhesion of UF resins heavily depends on the interphase features while that of the MUF resins highly depends on the cohesion of the resins.

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