Measuring resin-adhesive spray characteristics using a laser diffraction analyzer
Published: 2009
Muszynski, L.
Zhang, X.
Publication Name: Forest products journal
Abstract:
Droplet size and size distribution of resin-adhesive spray are often considered significant factors influencing resin efficiency in wood strand-based composite production. Most of the previous work on this subject has focused on measuring and describing droplet size and distribution as it appears on the wood. There is a need for advanced measurement technology to directly characterize wood resin-adhesive spray. This work used a laser diffraction analyzer to characterize the wood resin-adhesive spray generated by a spinning disk atomizer. The results demonstrated that the laser diffraction analyzer may be an effective tool for characterizing wood resin-adhesive spray. The real-time history record of spray characteristics clearly showed the variation of droplet size and size distribution over a period of time and aided in understanding online spray dynamics and recognizing the appearance of coarse droplets at the start-up of the spray process. The different ways in which spray data can be presented provides greater convenience for analysis of spray measurements. The pilot experimental set-up, however, needs refinement for longer periods of data collection.