Characterization of blockboard and battenboard sandwich panels from date palm waste trunks.

This paper presents investigation on the properties of value-added lightweight sandwich panels, blockboard and battenboard, made by date palm waste trunks as core layer combined with thin MDF as face layers. Some important physical, mechanical and thermo- acoustic properties of the panels were measured according to standard test methods and apparatus. Completely randomized design of experiments was planned and SPSS package was used for statistical analysis. Based on the experimental results, date palm wood-MDF sandwich panels with good thermal conductivity about 0.14 W/m K and favorable sound absorption up to 0.64 and noise reduction coefficients up to 0.15 can be used as heat and sound insulating materials. In addition, adequate physical and mechanical properties can be introduced date palm wood–MDF sandwich panels as a lightweight, cost-effective and environmental friendly alternative for wood- based panels for interior applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]