Performance of fasteners in wood flour-thermoplastic composite panels

In the building community, there is a growing demand for high-performance, low-maintenance, and low-cost building products. To meet this demand, natur al fiber thermoplastic composites are being used to produce such products a s decking, window and door elements, panels, roofing, and siding. In spite of the rapid growth in the use of these composites, little is known about t heir fastener performance. In this study, experimental fastener tests were performed on wood flour-thermoplastic composite panels. Results are present ed for screw withdrawal, nail withdrawal, nail head pull-through, and later al nail resistance tests. These results indicate that screw withdrawal, nai l withdrawal, and nail head pull-through capacity are relatively unaffected by wood flour content. However, wood flour content affected lateral nail r esistance. The use of pilot holes (predrilling) was found to have little ef fect on fastener capacity. The screw withdrawal capacity of the tested wood flour-thermoplastic composite panels was found to be equal to or greater t han that of conventional wood panel products.