[en] In recent years, there are growing trends in using vegetables oil as raw materials in resin production. Development of new products from palm oil derivatives such as epoxidised palm oil (EPO) is of particular interest to this country. The compatibility of EPO with cycloaliphatic diepoxide allows the development of a wide range of radiation curable formulations by cationic photoinitiators. Curing was done by means of a 20 cm wide IST UV, machine with the conditions of 7.5A current and 4 m/min conveyor speed. Sulphonium and ferrocenium salts were used as the cationic photoinitiators. A study was formulated to compromise the investigation of various effects on the cured film properties. These effects include; types and concentration of photoinitiators, formulating ratios, reactive diluents, photosensitizers and postcuring conditions. The effects on the gel fraction, pendulum hardness, tensile strength and elongation at break were investigated. The results showed that 30% of EPO was the maximum value that can be used in the formulation. It was also found that triarylsulphonium hexafluorophosphate has a very low solubility in EPO

[en] Epoxidised palm oil (EPO) resin can be cured by ultraviolet (UV) radiation either by radical, cationic or hybrid system. Cationic curing system has been chosen in this study due to the fact that epoxy groups present in EPO can be utilised directly to form crosslinking. Curing was done by means of a 20 cm wide UV IST machine with the conditions of 7.5 A current and 4 m/min conveyor speed. Sulphonium and ferrocenium salts were used as cationic photoinitiator. A formulations study was performed on the selected grades of EPO with other materials. These include types and concentration of photoinitiator, monomers, concentration of EPO and post-cure. The properties of the cured film such as pendulum hardness, percentage of gel content and tensile strength were determined. It was found that triarylsulphonium hexafluorophosphate has a very low solubility in EPO. Addition of vinyl ether monomer to the formulation did not enhance pendulum hardness and gel content of the cured films. It is also found that the post cure temperature has no significant effect on the cured film

[en] Latex timber clone (LTC) rubber wood trees were introduced by Lembaga Getah Malaysia (LGM) for obtaining good yield of latex as well as the quality timber. Two juvenile clones namely RRIM2009 and RRIM2024 were selected for measuring the chemical properties based on TAPPI standards and were assessed at different height levels (top, middle and bottom). These chemical properties of wood can serve as an indicator for predicting the wood behavior for specific end usage. The findings revealed that there were significant variation between the clones and the highest value was obtained at the bottom portion except for lignin content. Clone RRIM2009 exhibited higher percentage of ash content (0.80 %) and lignin content (17.30 %). While Clone RRIM2024 has greater value of holocellulose content (58.58 %) and alpha-cellulose content (41.41 %). According to the different height levels, top portion exhibited highest lignin content (17.64 % for RRIM2009 and 16.75 % for RRIM2024). While bottom portion exhibited highest holocellulose (58.93 % for RRIM2009 and 60.56 % for RRIM2024), highest alpha-cellulose (39.75 % for RRIM2009 and 43.02 % for RRIM2024) and highest ash content (0.85 % for RRIM2009 and 0.71 % for RRIM2024). As a whole, clone RRIM2024 gave higher value except for lignin and ash content compared to RRIM2009. Thus, the potential of using such LTC rubber wood trees for specific purposes is promising. (author)