Oct 3 2006
Under the supervision of professors Ignacio Covián Sánchez, Miguel Ángel Cabrerizo Vílchez and Roque Hidalgo Álvarez, this research work of the Department of Applied Physics of the University of Granada has gone deeply into the advantages of using paraffin as a waterproofing element for chipboards. The study has been carried out in the framework of the agreement between the group of fluids and bicolloids physics and the Spanish company Repsol YPF.
In addition, it is the first doctoral thesis presented in the Inter-University Program for Science and Technology of Colloids and Interfaces. Paraffin is a hydrocarbon derived from petroleum. Múgica Garay has studied the role played by the paraffin emulsion in the chipboard production industry as a water-repellent agent able to optimize the water and humidity resistant capacity of the chipboard.
The reformulation of the paraffin emulsion, according to the conclusions of the thesis, has notably facilitated and improved its implementation and the quality of the final product. The nature of this work is essentially technologic and has been useful to prove the water-proof capacity of paraffin as well as to optimize its industrial use. To this extent, they have especially studied the influence of oils and other hydrocarbons in such water-proof capacity.
To calculate this capacity, it is necessary to measure the contact angle (ADSA-D) of water drops on a substratum treated with the paraffin emulsion, simulating in the laboratory the processes of the industrial plant. The oil content does not waterproof more, but it facilitates paraffin extension in the surface and avoids its redifussion.