Investigation on the shear strength of the two types of sliding corner joints and compared with fixed joints

The lateral shear strength of tree piece elit sliding joints in MDF were measured and compared with fixed joints. L-shape joints were made as defined in ASTM D1761 using two MDF members with the dimensions of 20X20 mm. Test specimen were made in 5 replications and a total of 80 specimens were tested. The fixed joints used were wooden rough dowel joint with the diameter of either 8 or 10 mm covered with PVA glue, screw fasteners with the length of either 40 or 50 mm and the wooden biscuit fasteners no.10 covered with PVA glue. The sliding joints were selected as elit joints, elit joints reinforced with 8 and 10 mm dowels, metallic sliding joints with notch and without notch reinforced with glue free 8 or 10 mm dowel joints. Laminated and raw MDF boards were used to identify the impact of lamination. The results showed that in corner joints, the strength of the sliding notched joints were superior to sliding joints without notch. The strength of angular sliding elit joints with 10 mm dowel was more than the strength of fixed elit joint with 8 mm dowel and elit without dowel. The strength of fixed dowel joint without glue was higher than similar joint with 8 mm dowel. The strength of 50 mm screw joint in unlaminated MDF was more than 40 mm screw and similar MDF. The highest strength was measured using sliding joint in corner joint configuration using notched 10 mm doubles. However, in fixed joints, 10 mm dowel showed the highest strength. As the results indicate, sliding notched joints with 8 mm dowel joints (191.61 N) and fixed joints with 10 mm dowel (135.14 N) were the superior joints.