Let's talk about formaldehyde!

Glue is required when manufacturing boards. When glue is mentioned, people immediately think of formaldehyde, environmental protection, and leukemia. To be honest, it seems that businesses have been hyping up the concept of environmental protection in recent years, and everyone's mentality has become a little crazy, thinking that there are always manufacturers who want to harm us.

So are manufacturers willing to use more glue? Sometimes, not really. Factories have to control raw material costs. Even the cheapest white latex is more expensive than wood chips, so they won't let you use more glue if you can. To save money, some glue squeezed out during the board manufacturing process is recycled for secondary use. While manufacturers and consumers may have different goals, they share the same desire to squeeze out as much glue as possible. Furthermore, the pressing process is performed at temperatures exceeding 100 degrees Celsius. The higher the temperature, the faster formaldehyde evaporates, so a significant amount of formaldehyde evaporates during the production process.

But what are you afraid of? Are you worried that manufacturers, to save money, will use bad glue instead of good glue? There are two common glues used for wood panels: phenolic resin and urea-formaldehyde resin. Urea-formaldehyde resin is inexpensive and popular with manufacturers, but the chemical reaction formula for its formation is: urea + formaldehyde = urea-formaldehyde resin. This is a reversible reaction. At slightly higher temperatures, the reaction proceeds from right to left, causing the urea-formaldehyde resin to decompose and become free formaldehyde, which is then released from the board. Therefore, avoid buying boards that use urea-formaldehyde glue.

Generally speaking, the finer the wood, the more glue is applied, which sounds like MDF will have more glue than particleboard; but the greater the pressure on the pressing plate, the more glue is squeezed out, which seems to be less glue than particleboard; in addition to how much glue is used and what kind of glue is used during the production process, there are many factors such as board edge sealing, veneer, and hole opening, which all affect the formaldehyde volatilization of the final furniture product.

Regarding the environmental friendliness of density board or particle board, the only applicable national standard at present is the "Limits of Formaldehyde Emission from Artificial Boards and Their Products for Interior Decoration and Renovation Materials" (GB 18580-2001), which stipulates that as long as the board meets the E1 level, it can be used indoors.

Limits on Formaldehyde Emissions from Artificial Boards and Their Products for Indoor Decoration and Renovation

This standard does not have an E0 grade.

Let's take a look at the national standards that have E0 level:

1. Impregnated Paper Laminated Wood Flooring (GB/T 18102-2007) stipulates the E0

2. Blockboard (GB/T 5849-2006) stipulates the E0 of blockboard (core board)

3. "Ordinary Plywood" (GB/T 9846-2015) stipulates the E0 of plywood

The above three E0s are targeted at different types of flooring or boards and cannot be confused with density boards and particle boards.

Formaldehyde-free glue test results

Having said that, do friends have a deeper understanding of the glue content of plywood?