Abstract
Tiles are widely used for strengthening and improving the surface appearance of floors and wall in building and houses. The existing method of producing tile requires high baking temperature thus is expensive. A newly developed method of producing tiles i.e. moulding concrete mixture in flexible mould using vibrating method is an alternative production method of tile which is cheaper due to no high baking temperature is required. Nevertheless the water absorption rate is high and hence causing reduction in tiles strength. This property is improved by using thermoset Melamine-Urea-Formaldehyde (MUF) resin. The commercially available MUF resin is however are not water soluble, therefore in this research, water-soluble low formaldehyde emission MUF resin is developed and modified with other chemical so that it is compatible for unbaked tiles application. Investigation of effects of various percentage of MUF resin on unbaked tile flexure strength and water absorption rate is investigated. The research finding shows that, MUF resin produced in 3-reaction stages with mole ratio of F:U1=9, F:M1=2.91 & F:U3=3.55 and 40°C End Point polymerisation has produced resin with better storage stability, high solubility in water, ability to cure at low temperature, and curing period comparable to concrete mixture setting period. Addition of 5-20% of this resin reduces the water absorption rate and maintains the flexure strength of unbaked tile. Unbaked tile flexure strength can further be improved by adding 5% of MUF resin that has been modified with 0.25% PVA added in the beginning of resin synthesis.
