Colorimetric evaluation of three tropical woods after accelerated weathering

IRG/WP 14-20541

R Faustino Teles, A Florian da Costa

The use of wood in the furniture industry is directly associated with their physical, mechanical and organoleptic characteristics. The color of the wood is a major factor in the selection of forests species to employ in the furniture projects and is fundamental the maintenance of its colorimetric pigments over time. The objective of this study was to evaluate the colorimetric behaviour of three tropical woods used in the furniture industry forward to accelerated weathering. The woods of cumaru (Dipterix odorata), marupá (Simarouba amara) and tauari (Couratari sp.) were selected and fifteen samples of each were produced at dimensions of 5 x 20 x 315 mm (thickness x width x length). The artificial accelerated weathering was conduced according to ASTM G 154 (2006) and the procedures used five cycle intervals of 240 hours of exposure up to a total of 1,200 hours in a climatic chamber. The colorimetric assessment was performed with a espectrophotocolorimeter, with D65 illuminant and 10˚ angle at room temperature and the CIEL*a*b* color space system was employed (1976) with ASTM D 2244 ( 2009) for the total color variation. The cumaru wood presented the lowest colorimetric variation followed by tauari and marupá. It was observed that the red and yellow pigments significantly decreased in the first cycle of 240 hours of exposure in all woods, and their surfaces got greyish. However, the renewal of surfaces were noted by the decrease of the total variation in color due to the leaching of photodegraded products, tending to return the their original colors.


Keywords: furniture, surfaces, colorimetric pigments, CIEL*a*b*

Conference: 14-05-11/15 St George, Utah, USA


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