Official Website of Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM)

From Oil Palm To Particleboards

Furniture manufacturers have now at their disposal,  the oil palm particleboard which can be used as an alternative to rubberwood for the production of  furniture, thanks to a team of researchers from the university’s Faculty of Applied Sciences. The research led by Associate Professor Dr Jamaludin Kasim, together with Nur Rohana Ahmad, Shaikh Abdul Karim Yamani and  Anis Mokhtar,  focused on oil palm tree trunks to create strong and durable particleboards which could be used with confidence to produce dining tables and chairs,  kitchen cabinets, racks, cupboards, partitions  and other household furniture.

Since the Malaysian particleboard industry has been using rubberwood as the main raw material in the production of particleboards,  it is experiencing a shortage of raw materials as rubberwood is also sought by various sectors of the wood industry. Oil palm trunks which are available in abundance, therefore, holds the potential of being the alternative raw material that can be utilised for the particleboard industry. It is projected that  there are more than 20 million m3 of oil palm trunks available annually.