There exists today a wide variety of wood polymer composite boards that are commonly called "particle board".  Basically these materials are made from nonchemically processed dry wood particles of various shapes and sizes and either synthetic or natural adhesive material.  There are some specific cases and areas of research where the wood material is chemically treated to create greater compatibility between the wood and the polymer adhesive but to date are not a large portion of commercially produced "particle board".

    The basic materials from which particle boards are made can be broken down into four basic types.

• Chips,  which are wood particles typiclly used in pulp manufacture
• Flakes,  these are mechanicaly sliced wood particles and are usually one-tenth of an inch in thickness
• Ribbons,  thesere are wood particles of a specific thickness but varied in length
• Shavings, these are wafer-like wood particles and typically are known to be thin, of great widy, short length, and consisitng somewhat of ruptured fibers
• Splinters, these are wood particles similar to broken toothpicks, that are typically greater in length as compared to width

Ring cut flakes.	Ring cut shavings.
Attrition-milled chips	Planar shavings.
Drum cut flakes	Sander dust

Sawmill sawdust.

    There are other types of ligno-cellulosic materials that are used in wood polymer composite materials that sometimes are lumped in with particle boards but differ mainly in the amount of processing involved in preparing the woody material for composite manufacture. Fiberboard is a good example in that the degree of fiberization is much higher than the above materials through chemical and physical treatment.  Also non wood sources of cellulosic materials have been utilized to make these types of materials.

    The described wood materials above are then bound together with thermosetting resins like phenol-formaldehyde, and other organics such as polyisocyanates

To learn more about particle board manufacture click here.

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