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Article: Wood-plastic composites vie for market share: although their primary applications continue to be decking and structural materials, the use of wood-plastic composites for interior applications is a growing market.
- Article from:
- Wood & Wood Products
- Article date:
- April 1, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Vance Publishing Corp. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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For interior applications, there's been the "traditional" materials -- solid wood and more recently wood-based composites, such as particleboard and MDF.
Now it's time for the "untraditional." Making headway into the flooring, moulding, cabinet and furniture arenas are wood-plastic composites. These composites consist of a mixture of wood flour and a plastic resin, typically polypropylene, polyethylene, ABS, PVC or polystyrene.
According to the research group Principia Partners, wood-plastic composites first gained recognition in the early 1950s when the automotive industry began adding wood flour to polypropylene to manufacture rear package shelves, ...