Experimental Study on the Extrusion of Wood Plastic Composite Foam: Observation of Variations of Weight, Density, Cost and Strength

This paper presents an experimental study on production of WPC foam in an extrusion process. Azodicarbonamide was used as the chemical blowing agent (CFA). Independent variables were selected as wood content (30, 45, 60 wt %), Die diameter (15, 25, 35mm) and CFA content (0, 1%).Measured parameters were pressure, flexural strength, cost, density, specific strength and specific strength to cost. The effect of independent variable on the dependent variable was investigated experimentally. For design of experiments, central composite response surface was applied. Design-Expert software was utilized to analyze the data. The results showed that with increasing the wood content, density increased but cost, SS and SSC reduced in WPC foam. Optimum condition to yield a high SSC occurs at two extremes of low and high wood content. Specific strength for WPCF showed 13 % higher than that of WPC. Besides, the analysis of results indicated the foaming WPC is effective wood content is below 45% in economical point of uses.

کلیدواژه ها:

WPC ، WPCF ، Specific strength ، foam ، wood plastic composite