Evaluation of surface roughness of commercially manufactured particleboard and medium density fiberboard in Japan

The objective of this study is to evaluate surface roughness of commercially manufactured particleboard and medium density fiberboard (MDF) in Japan. Stylus technique was used to measure surface of both types of panel products. Two parameters, namely average roughness (Ra) and mean peak-to-valley height (Rz) were used to determine quantitatively surface characteristics of the samples along and across sandmark. Average Ra values ranged from 3.67 to 5.46 μm and from 3.42 to 8.47 μm for particleboard and MDF specimens, respectively. No statistically significant difference was found in roughness measurements taken in two sanding directions for all samples with an exception of panel type-H sanded with 80-grit sand paper at 95% confidence level. In further studies, surface roughness of the samples overlaid with various types of paper and exposed to different relative humidity levels could be investigated to have a better understanding of surface stability of the panels.