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Bioresource Technology 99 (2008) 23842391

Optimization of processing variables in woodrubber composite

panel manufacturing technology
Zhao Jun *, Wang Xiang-ming, Chang Jian-min, Zheng Kai
Beijing Forestry University, College of Material Science and Technology, 35 Qinghua East Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100083, China
Received 24 December 2006; received in revised form 3 May 2007; accepted 5 May 2007
Available online 2 July 2007

Abstract
The feasibility of manufacturing woodrubber functional composite panels with a polymeric methylene diphenyl diisocyanate
(PMDI) and urea-formaldehyde (UF) combination binder system was investigated. Mechanisms of interacted independent variables
(board density, pressing time and pressing temperature) for eect on board properties were opened out. The board performance was
evaluated by measuring internal bond (IB) strength, modulus of rupture (MOR) and modulus of elasticity (MOE). The test results were
statistically analyzed by using response surface method (RSM) of Design-Expert software to determine the signicant independent variables that inuenced board properties. A mathematical simulation or response surface models were developed to predict the board properties (MOR, MOE and IB). The results showed that board density and some interactions between the experimental variables were
signicant factors that inuenced board mechanical properties. The suggested optimal board manufacturing conditions were about
170 C, for pressing temperature, 300 s for pressing time, and 1000 g cm3 for board density.
2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Woodrubber composite; PMDI/UF resin; Processing optimization

1. Introduction
With the rapid development of the economy worldwide
and the increasing demand of automobiles, people will confront a severe problem the dilemma between environmental
pollution from waste tires and the shortage of rubber
resources. A statistic analysis indicates that approximately
1.5 billion tires are discarded every year worldwide (Jiang,
2003). The ever-increasing environmental hazard from the
waste tires has emerged. To protect environment by reducing black pollution and save resources have become an
important issue for every country. Eectively recycling
waste tires such as manufacturing woodrubber based
composites could be one of the solutions
The woodrubber composite panel is a relatively new
type of composite materials in which PMDI resin is commonly used as binder and waste tire rubber crumbs and
*

Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 10 62391671; fax: +86 10 62337733.

E-mail address: zhaojun200411@yahoo.com.cn (Z. Jun).

0960-8524/$ - see front matter 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2007.05.031

wood particles as raw materials. The waste tire rubber is

an ideal raw material for the functional composite panel
because it possesses some unique properties: excellent
energy absorption, characteristically large elastic deformation, better sound insulation, durability and abrasion resistance, anti-caustic and anti-rot (Fu, 2003). Thus, the
composites can apply in so many places as functional
products.
The studies on woodrubber materials have not been
reported in China. However, a number of studies on nonwood materials by using MDI or PMDI as binder have
been carried out, such as the manufacturing of rice straw
particleboard (Yu et al., 2001; Yang and Zhang, 2004;
Hua, 2001). In the study of characteristics of PMDI or
MDI, Hua et al. (2001) found that MDI was the most suitable adhesive for non-wood particleboard due to its tolerance to moisture content, short cure time, no release of
noxious gases such as formaldehyde, and low application
level of adhesive. Wang (2002) discussed the reaction relationship between MDI, UF, water, and wood through

Z. Jun et al. / Bioresource Technology 99 (2008) 23842391

many advanced analysis methods. The results exhibit that

the reaction between UF and MDI has began before the
reaction between water and MDI takes place, and the cure
mechanism had also been fully explained. Yang et al.
(2004) studied the straw-waste tire composites. The test
result showed that straw-waste/tire rubber composites
had similar mechanical properties compared to woodrubber composites when MDI resin was used as binder. At
same time, straw and waste tires composites also possessed
better sound insulation, durability, heat insulation, and
energy absorption. Ismail et al. (2001) found that the cure
time and IB strength increased with increasing the amount
of adhesive (mixed MDI, PF and UF) but with decreasing
the vulcanizing time. Some mechanical properties such as,
tensile strength, module of tensile, and rigidity of the composites were partially improved. However, the tensile property and fatigue life span decreased. This study indicates
that high amounts of adhesive were required to achieve
good bonding. Song and Hwang (1997) examined the
wood-waste tires composites and found that the ratio of
wood ber to rubber particles and amount of MDI were
the signicant factors that inuenced board mechanical
properties. MDI could excellently bond the wood ber
and waste rubber particles together. Board properties such
as MOE, MOR, IB and Yang module increased with
increasing the resin application levels.
The above studies indicate that MDI or PMDI resin is
most suitable for manufacturing wood-waste tire rubber
composites panels in terms of high bond strength and
excellent durability of the panels as compared with UF
resin (Wang, 2002). Due to the possession of highly reactive and unsaturated NCO groups, PMDI or MDI resin
can react not only with hydroxyl groups of wood, but also
with water in the wood. Besides the chemical bonding,
PMDI or MDI resin can also develop strong mechanical
bonding because the small molecules of PMDI or MDI
are capable to diuse into the wood substrate. In addition,
the reaction of PMDI or MDI with water generates considerable quantity of heat, which can prompt the process of
the reaction (Pizzi et al., 1995; Gao, 2003). It is expected
that the feasibility of producing strong woodrubber composites with PMDI or MDI resin could be attributed to the
development of some chemical bonds between the PMDI
or MDI and rubber.
The use of PMDI or MDI is favorable for producing
strong woodrubber composites compared to the conventional UF resin, but it signicantly increases the production cost because PMDI or MDI is more expansive than
UF resin. The purpose of this study was to explore the
feasibility of using PMDI and UF combination binder
system for manufacturing woodrubber composites. This
resin system would take advantages of the strong bond
quality for PMDI and the low cost for UF resin. Board
manufacturing parameters, such as pressing time, temperature and board density, will be optimized for achieving
high quality panel through the numerical parameter
optimization.

2385

2. Methods
2.1. Experimental materials
Wood particle species used in this study was larch (Larlx
gmelini) obtained from Xing An Mountain, Inner Mongolia of China. An analysis of particle geometry indicated
that particle length ranged from 3 to 25 mm, width from
1.0 to 2.5 mm, and thickness from 0.2 to 0.8 mm. Rubber
particles were prepared from waste tires with reinforced
tendons being mechanically removed prior to grinding.
The length of rubber particles varied between 1 and 7 mm.
Both commercial PMDI and UF resins were used as binder in this work. PMDI was provided by Wan Hua Polyurethanes Co. LTD in China; UF resin was provided by
Bell Co. LTD in Beijing. Catalyst for UF resin was 20%
ammonium chloride (NH4Cl) aqueous solution. The
NH4Cl solution was applied at a level of 0.5% based on
solid weight of UF resin. An emulsion wax at solid content
of UF was used as waterproof agent. The wax was applied
at a level of 1% based on solid weight of UF resin. Both
catalyst and wax were pre-mixed with UF resin prior to
application. The catalyst was provided by Shanghai Chemistry Reagent Corporation in China. Emulsion wax was
provided by Yan Shan Chemical Plant in Beijing.
2.2. Experimental procedures
PMDI and UF resins were applied separately. A 6%
PMDI for rubber crumbs and a 10% UF (solid basis) for
wood particles were used through the experiment. The
weight ratio of wood particles to rubber crumbs was
60:40. First of all the required amount of wood particles
was loaded into a drum blender. UF resin was applied to
the particle via spraying. After uniformly mixing, the resinated particles were discharged, followed by loading rubber
crumbs. The PMDI resin was mixed with more than 40%
acetone based on the resin weight. After PMDI application,
the resinated wood particles were reloaded into the blender
and mixed with the resinated rubber crumbs afterwards.
The mixed wood particle and rubber crumbs were manually formed into a mat of 300 mm by 300 mm in a wooden
box. The mat was pre-pressed at 1.5 MPa for 30 s and then
hot-pressed at the pressure of 48.0 MPa to 12 mm of the
target thickness. To prevent board sticking to hot platens,
silicon oil was coated on the surfaces of top and bottom
platens. In addition, waxed papers were also placed at
the bottom and on the top of the mat. The hot press temperature was in range of 160180 C, the hot press time in
180420 s, and board density in 8001200 g cm3.
2.3. Experimental methods
Box-Behnken design of RSM (Response Surface
Method) in Design-Expert 7.01 software was used in experimental design to determine the signicant variables that
inuenced board performance (Bloor and England, 1991).

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Z. Jun et al. / Bioresource Technology 99 (2008) 23842391

Table 1
Factors and corresponding levels for response surface design

Table 2
Experimental design and test results

Factors

ID

Unit

Experiment A
run no.
Temperature
(C)

B
Time
(s)

C
Density
(g cm3)

MOR MOE
(MPa) (MPa)

IB
(MPa)

Temperature
Time
Density

A
B
C

C
s
g cm3

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17

300
180
180
300
300
180
180
420
300
420
300
300
420
300
300
300
420

1000
800
1000
800
1000
1200
1000
800
1200
1000
800
1000
1200
1000
1200
1000
1000

15.0
8.7
10.9
8.1
15.0
13.6
13.4
9.1
14.9
12.2
7.5
15.0
15.3
15.0
14.3
15.0
13.2

1.09
0.50
0.59
0.52
1.09
0.62
0.73
0.48
0.91
0.82
0.57
1.09
0.65
1.09
0.93
1.09
0.92

Level
Low ()

Medium (0)

High (+)

160
180
800

170
300
1000

180
420
1200

This method allows establishing statistical relationship

between experimental variables and response (test results),
from which the optimal experimental conditions could be
predicted for achieving the optimal board properties. In
order to describe the nature of the response surface in the
experimental region and elucidate the optimal concentrations of the most signicant independent variables.
Table 1 shows three factors (hot press temperature, hot
press time, board density) and three levels of each factor
(low, medium, high).

170
170
160
160
170
170
180
170
160
180
180
170
170
170
180
170
160

2350
860
1534
855
2351
2140
1870
1540
2110
2110
1429
2350
2210
2350
2077
2350
1990

3. Results and analysis

3.1. Test results
According to the experimental design with three independent variables (hot press temperature, time and board
density) and three levels of each variable, RSM design
yielded a total of 17 runs in a random order. The test
results are presented in Table 2.
Analysis of variance (ANOVA) of response surface was
made for MOR, MOE and IB properties and the results are
presented in Tables 35. The ANOVA analysis showed that
the signicant quadric models were obtained for all panel
properties indicating by P values less than 0.001. For the
single factor, the board density signicantly inuenced

MOR (P < 0.0001) at the 95% condence level. The pressing temperature and time were not signicant model terms
for MOR. There was an interaction between pressing temperature and time, which was a signicant model term for
MOR. This observation agreed to the ndings by Wang
and Lu (2004) who observed that pressing temperature
and time were interacted when mixed adhesives of MID
and UF were used in manufacturing wood-based particleboard. Regarding MOE property, all single factors (press
temperature, time and board density) and the interactions
between any two of them were signicant model terms.
With respect to IB strength, only board density was the signicant model term. All interactions between press temperature, time and board density did not signicantly aect IB.

Table 3
ANOVA for response surface quadratic model of MOR
D. Sources

Sum of squares

df

Mean square

F-value

p-value

Model
A-Temperature
B-Time
C-Density
AB
AC
BC

122.820
0.0312
1.125
75.031
3.062
0
0.562

9
1
1
1
1
1
1

13.6466
0.0312
1.12
75.0312
3.062
0
0.5625

61.1369
0.14
5.04
336.14
13.72
0
2.52

<0.0001
0.7194
0.0596
<0.0001
0.0076
1.0000
0.1564

Table 4
ANOVA for response surface quadratic model of MOE
D. Sources

Sum of squares

df

Mean square

F-value

p-value

Model
A-Temperature
B-Time
C-Density
AB
AC
BC

3951285
124251.1
261364.5
1855701
11664
92112.25
93025

9
1
1
1
1
1
1

439031.7
124251.1
261364.5
1855701
11664
92112.25
93025

1989.72
563.1141
1184.521
8410.157
52.862
417.4586
421.5953

<0.0001
<0.0001
<0.0001
<0.0001
0.0002
<0.0001
<0.0001

Z. Jun et al. / Bioresource Technology 99 (2008) 23842391

2387

Table 5
ANOVA for response surface quadratic model of IB
D. Source

Sum of squares

df

Mean square

F-value

p-value

Model
A-Temperature
B-Time
C-Density
AB
AC
BC

0.843849
0.001513
0.023113
0.1352
0.0144
0.000225
0.000625

9
1
1
1
1
1
1

0.093761
0.001513
0.023113
0.1352
0.0144
0.000225
0.000625

13.79562
0.222543
3.400683
19.8928
2.11876
0.033106
0.09196

0.0011
0.6515
0.1077
0.0029
0.1888
0.8608
0.7705

3.2. Eect of the independent variables on MOR, MOE and

IB properties

0.9675

IB (MPa)

3.2.1. Eect of hot press time and temperature on MOR,

MOE and IB properties
Figs. 1 and 2 exhibit the inuence of interactions
between press temperature (160180 C) and time (180
420 s) on board properties. These three-dimensional plots
show that when the target board density was 1000 g cm3,
the short press time (180 s) and the low press temperature
(160 C) resulted in lower MOR (10.9 MPa), MOE
(1534 MPa), and IB (0.59 MPa). The mechanical properties
of composites at these conditions were relatively poor,
which might be attributed to too low hot press temperature
and short hot press time to produce the consolidated panels, especially UF cannot produce consolidated panels
when the hot press time and temperature do not reach need
of a desired curing condition. When the pressing time was
too short, transguration of wood partical was not sucient so that materials and adhesives could not achieve
enough sucient contacts. With an increase in time and
temperature, all mechanical properties increased. The press
time had more inuence on PMDI and UF curing compared to other variables. Fig. 1a and b show when pressed
for 300 s at 170 C, the highest MOR and MOE of wood
rubber panels were obtained, indicating UF and PMDI resins had reached their maximum degree of curing and
formed the strong bonds between wood particles and rubber crumbs. However, with hot press time prolonged, the

1.1

0.835

0.7025

0.57

420

180
360

175
300

170
240

B: Time (s)

165
180

160

A: Temperature (C)

Fig. 2. 3D graphic surface optimization of IB as inuenced by hot press

time and temperature.

change in MOR and MOE kept smooth. But MOR and

MOE appeared to slightly drop after press time at 330 s.
As the press temperature increased, MOR and MOE gradually increased, and the highest MOR and MOE were
observed at 170 C. A further increase in temperature
resulted in decreased MOR and MOE. A negative impact
of higher temperature and longer press cycle on board
strength properties was possibly due to surpassed press
time and temperature that caused the water in wood cell
antrum greatly lack. As a result, wood ber become fragile
and easily damaged, (and hydroxyl in wood become instable aether bonder due to lose water,and free energy from
surface of wood decrease). The over-curing of PMDI and

2400

14.05

2177.5

MOE (MPa)

MOR (MPa)

b
15.1

13

11.95

1955

1732.5

1510

10.9

420

180
360

175
300

B: Time (s)

170
240

165
180

160

A: Tempereture (C)

420

180
360

175
300

B: Time (s)

170
240

165
180

A: Tempreture (C)

160

Fig. 1. 3D graphic surface optimization of MOR and MOE as inuenced by hot press time and temperature.

2388

Z. Jun et al. / Bioresource Technology 99 (2008) 23842391

UF resins would likely degradate wood particles or rubber

particles; thus, wood particles and rubber crumbs could be
carbonized so that mechnical properties would be signicantly impacted.
With increase of the hot press time, IB value increased,
as shown in Fig. 2, when press time reached 300 s, IB
reached the highest value; however, a further increase in
press time brought IB sharply decreased. In terms of the
hot temperature, IB strength gradually increased with
increasing press temperature, and the hightest IB value
was observed at 170 C, and kept the highest value till
175 C, then IB strength started slightly dropping after
hot press temperature of 175 C.
The above observations indicate that board mechanical
properties were aected by hot press time and temperature.
The hot press time at 300330 s and temperature at 170
175 C seemed to be optimal pressing conditions for PMDI
and UF resins in making woodrubber composites.
3.2.2. Eect of board density on MOR, MOE and IB
properties
3.2.2.1. Eect of density prole on MOR, MOE and IB
properties. Board density is an important factor that inuences board performance (Hawk et al., 1992). Cell wall is
the main structure to bear load in the wood composites,
so the increase of density means to increase the resistance
of materials to the outside forces, and achieve good contacts of composite units for improving bonding strength.
The gradient of board density inuences MOR and
MOE properties. Gradients of temperature and moisture
content in the mat during pressing are main reasons to
form the gradient of board density. Through the observation by SEM (Song and Hwang, 1997), the rubber particle
will be pressed to into an ellipse shape from a round shape
during the hot press stage; Thus, the structure of rubber is
unlikely destroyed or crushed due to its high exibility, and

Fig. 3. (a) Vertical density prole of a wood-based particleboard, (b)

Vertical density prole of 60/40 wood/rubber composite panel with 6%
PMDI and 10% UF, (c) Vertical density prole of 40/60 wood/rubber
composite panel with 6% PMDI and 10% UF Fig. 4. 3D graphic surface
optimization of MOR and MOE as inuenced by board density and press
temperature.

the density prole of wood/rubber composites may not be

a U shape when the content of rubber crumbs reaches certain level in composites.
Fig. 3a shows a typical vertical density prole (VDP) for
a wood-based particleboard. For a given target board density, an increase in density in face zone will cause decreased
density in core zone. Such an increase in density between
core and face layer zones will improve MOR and MOE
properties, but lower IB strength.
The vertical density prole of woodrubber composite
panel bonded with 6% PMDI and 10% UF resins at
wood/rubber ratio of 60/40 is illustrated in Fig. 3b. The
VDP was not typical U shape but appeared to be more
at because 40% rubber crumbs were used in the composites. Such a density prole favors to yield high IB of wood/
rubber particleboard.
Fig. 3c shows the vertical density prole of woodrubber composite with 6% PMDI and 10% UF at a wood/rubber ratio of 40/60. Because the large quantity of rubber
crumbs were used, the density prole became more smooth,
the small dierence in density between the face and core
zones would further improve IB strength. During the consolidating process, the rubber crumbs were compressed
from round to thin, at particles. Such a change in rubber
crumb geometry would increase the contact area between
rubber crumbs and wood particles, which in return attributes to the improvement of bond quality. No cracks or
other damage potential caused by the pressing were
observed from the rubber particle surface. In addition, no
densication occurred on the rubber crumbs because of
their impressible property (Song and Hwang, 1997). The
observation from this study also showed that the core density was not only inuence IB strength but also static bending properties. When the core density was very low, the
increased face density did not seem to improve MOR and
MOE. These observations implied that the overall panel
performance could be maximized via optimizing board
density prole.
In order to nd out the optimum response regions of
MOR, MOE and IB, the signicant independent variable
of board density was further analyzed. Table 6 shows that
when the density was about 800 g cm3, an increase of the
amount of adhesive application only slightly improved
MOR, MOE and IB properties. These mechanical properties were much lower than those required by Chinese Standard (GB/T4897.1  4897.72003) for particleboard. This
result indicated that the board density at 800 g cm3 was
too low for woodrubber composites to achieve sucient
contacts between rubber and wood particles.
An ANOVA analysis of multivariate regression model
in response surface indicated that density was a signicant
factor inuencing the board properties. Fig. 4a and b and
Fig. 5 show that when the density was set at 800 g cm3,
the hot press time at 300 s and hot press temperature at
160 C, the poor board strength properties were obtained:
8.0 MPa for MOR, 855 MPa for MOE, and 0.52 MPa for
IB. However, all board properties were signicantly

Z. Jun et al. / Bioresource Technology 99 (2008) 23842391

2389

Table 6
The mechanical properties of wood/rubber composite panel made with dierent amounts of resins
No.

Target density
(g/m3)

Actual density
(g/cm3)

1
2
3
4
5

800
800
800
800
800

789
798
799
807
802

PMDI content (%)

UF content (%)

6
8
10
12
14

6
8
8
10
10

Wood/Rubber
ratios

MOR
(MPa)

MOE
(MPa)

IB
(MPa)

60/40
60/40
60/40
60/40
60/40

3.5
4.5
6.0
7.5
9.5

533
618
750
800
917

0.58
0.78
0.85
0.88
0.95

Chinese Standard GB/T4897.1  7 2003. Requirements of average particleboards under dry condition: MOR P 12.5 MPa, IB P 0.28 MPa; Requirements of furniture and decorative materials: MOR P 14.0 MPa, MOE P 1800 MPa, IB P 0.40 MPa.

a
16.1

2400

13.95

1850

MOE (MPa)

MOR (MPa)

11.8

9.65

7.5

1300

750

200

1200

180
1100

175
1000

170

C: Density (g cm-3) 900

165

1200

180
1100

175
1000

A: Tempereture (C)

800 160

C: Density (g cm-3)

170
900

165

A: Temperature (C)

800 160

Fig. 4. 3D graphic surface optimization of MOR and MOE as inuenced by board density and press temperature.

1.12

IB (MPa)

0.97

0.82

0.67

0.52

1200

180
1100

175
1000

170

C: Density (g cm-3) 900

165

A: Temperature (C)

800 160

Fig. 5. 3D graphic surface optimization of IB as inuenced by board

density and press temperature.

improved with an increase in board density. The maximum

MOR and MOE were obtained at the density of 1000
1100 g cm3 and the press temperature of 170 C. This
result indicated that UF and PMDI resins had reached
their maximum degree of curing at 170 C and strong
bonds had been formed at 10001100 g cm3 via improved
contacts between wood and rubber particles. A further
increase in board density and press temperature resulted
in decreased MOR and MOE. Fig. 5 indicates that IB value

reached its maximum at 1000 g cm3. The press temperature had a less inuence on IB strength.
Fig. 4a and b and Fig. 5 show that higher density had a
negative impact MOR and MOE (>1100 g cm3) and IB
(>1000 g cm3), which was likely due to the damage of
wood bers. Unlike the wood particles, the rubber crumbs
may not be signicantly damaged at the high pressure, but
the stress concentration could take place, the rubber
crumbs absorb a large amount of energy during the deformation. Rubber consists of long exible chain-link molecules with many repeating units which can rotate freely
about their backbone bonds. The stress concentration will
reduce bending strength properties. In general, wood particles play a critical role in improving mechanical properties
of composites due to their greater strength compared to
rubber crumbs. In this study, the rubber crumbs were lled
between wood particles and expected to make only a little
contribution to the strength of the composites because of
their low strength and large deformation. Above a certain
limit of board density, the load may not be eectively transferred from the interface zone of woodrubber to wood
particles and result in an interface breakage. Therefore,
MOR, MOE and IB of composites could drop when density surpasses the limitation.
An analysis of panel density and hot press temperature
that aected board mechanical properties, the density at
1000 g cm3 and press temperature at 170175 C were

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Z. Jun et al. / Bioresource Technology 99 (2008) 23842391

Table 7
Summary of experiment optimization for MOR, MOE and IB
Factors

Optimized value to MOR

Optimized value to MOE

Optimized value to IB

Lowest value

Highest value

Temp. (C)
Time (s)
Density (g cm3)
Result (MPa)

169.758
295.2
1023.32
15.615

170.54
303
1030
2409.6

169.26
291.7
1015.16
1.092

160
180
800

180
420
1200

considered to be the optimal pressing conditions for PMDI

and UF resins in making high quality woodrubber
composites.
3.3. Conicoid regression model and optimization of density
and press temperature and time for MOR, MOE and IB
With Numerical Optimization available in DesignExpert RSM, signicant conicoid regression models were
established to estimate each individual board property
(MOR, MOE and IB) as inuenced by independent variables (press temperature, press time, board density). Based
on the analysis of variance (ANOVA) for response surface
models, the equations, in terms of actual factors, can be
provided as follows. In the following equations, press temperature (A) varies between 160 C and 180 C, press time
(B) between 180 and 420 s, and board density (C) between
800 and 1000 g cm3. The optimal conditions of press temperature, time and board density for achieving the desired
board properties are given in Table 7.
With the optimum experimental variables shown in
Table 7, the maximum predicted values are 15.615 MPa
for MOR, 2409.6 MPa for MOE, and 1.092 MPa for IB.
The statistical analysis shows a high precision of the polynomial model that reects high degree of tting between
predicted and experimental data. This great similarity
between the predicted and observed results reects the
accuracy and applicability of the BoxBehnken model in
the optimization processes (Teruel et al., 1997). The conicoid regression model equation of MOR:
RMOR 539:362 5:4075  A 9:45  B 125:125
 C  0:04375  A  B 0:8125  B  C
 0:01525  A2  0:2625  B2  56:875  C 2
The conicoid regression model equation of MOE:
RMOE 111105 1026:553  A 1436:188  B
40:23688  C  2:7  A  B  0:07587  A
 C  0:38125  B  C  2:71975  A2
 50:556  B2  0:0115C 2
The conicoid regression model equation of IB:
RIB 1:09 0:01375  A 0:05375  B 0:13  C
 0:06  A  B  0:0075  A  C 0:0125  B
 C  0:0775  A2  0:2475  B2  0:28  C 2

4. Conclusions
The experiment was conducted to determine the feasibility of manufacturing of woodrubber composites. The
interaction between experimental variables and their inuence on board performance were explored. The test results
indicated that press temperature and time signicantly
impact on MOR and board density signicantly inuences
all board properties (IB and MOE, and MOR). The interactions of variables also have signicant eects on MOE.
The signicant conicoid regression model equations were
established for IB, MOR and MOE. An ANOVA analysis
shows that the optimal composite manufacturing variables
for making high quality woodrubber panel would are
about 170 C for press temperature, about 300 s for press
time, and about 1000 g cm3 for board density.
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