Improvement of adhesion strength for wood-based material coating process using design of experiment methodology

The coating performance of wood-based materials is affected by different sanding conditions and coating application parameters. In particular, in the furniture industry, these processes are significant indicators for increasing the process efficiency and determining the optimum paint quantity. The purpose of this study was to improve the coating performance of medium density fiberboard using design of experiment methodology. In this study, independent variables were selected as coating amount, feed rate, belt speed and grit type, whereas the dependent variable was determined as adhesion strength. Face-centered composite design and analysis of variance were applied to determine the significant factors. Adhesion strength values of the specimens were determined by using pull-off adhesion test equipment. Sanding and coating application parameters for maximizing the adhesion strength were optimized by using response surface methodology and desirability function. Optimal processing parameters for maximizing the adhesion strength were achieved with a feed rate of 5 m/min, belt speed of 15.13 m/s, paint amount of 352.10 g/m(2) and sandpaper type of SiC.