Stiffness changes in MDF kitchen cabinet after accelerated aging test

Board-made square/rectangular shapes are considered as the basic structures in case goods production such as closet or kitchen cabinet. In this experiment real size square shape kitchen cabinet have been manufactured using screw and two types of board، bare MDF without edge band and melamine overlaid MDF with edge band، both were exposed to accelerated aging test. Totally 50 boxes have been constructed and tested. 25 boxes manufactured with bare MDF and without edge band and 25 boxes (which were exactly similar) with melamine overlaid MDF with edge band. Total of five treatments (including control samples) which were only different in aging time، have been implemented on cabinets. Then the stiffness of these kitchen cabinets has been evaluated. Results of statistical analysis showed that the effect of treatments on the stiffness of melamine overlaid MDF cabinets with edge band is significant at 1% level (confidence level of 99%). Comparison of T1 (control) and T5 (harshest) treatment showed that in both board types structure nearly 10% decrease in cabinet stiffness happened. The same rate of reduction after the harshest aging in stiffness ofboth types of cabinets compared to their control samples was observed. Nevertheless cabinets manufactured with melamine overlaid MDF with edge band have demonstrated more than three times the stiffness of the cabinets manufactured of bare MDF without edge band. This proves that the effect of overlaid and edge band in increasing stiffness of cabinets is very outstanding.