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Forest Products Laboratory
One Gifford Pinchot Drive
Madison, WI 53726
Phone: (608) 231-9200
Fax: (608) 231-9592
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Partnership Profile - Success for Adhesives

Ongoing Collaboration Leads to Success for Adhesives Research

fpl Adhesives are only a small part of wood composites by weight but are a substantial part of the cost. Increasing petroleum prices have stimulated commercial interest in using soybean flour for bonding wood products instead of the traditionally used petroleum-based phenol-formaldehyde. Based on this interest, a partnership was formed between the Forest Products Laboratory and Heartland Resource Technologies in 2004, and a technology was jointly developed that uses up to 75% soybean flour in the adhesive.

The research was initially aimed at replacing part of the existing adhesive for oriented strandboard. However, the success of the laboratory work, including the issuance of several patents, has led to the pursuit of additional applications, including plywood and molded wood products. Research moved from mainly laboratory work to a mixture of laboratory studies and plant trials.

The success of this work is further illustrated by the creation of a new research and development venture in 2007 called H2H Innovations, which is the result of Heartland Resource Technologies joining forces with Hercules Incorporated. H2H Innovations plans to leverage existing soy-based adhesive technologies from both companies to accelerate the development of new adhesive products for the wood products industry.
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