Weathering’s Effect on Color and Roughness in Some Heat-treated Wood Species with Modified Water-based Varnish

Abstract

Heat treatment in wood materials and the use of water-based varnishes (WBV) in furniture made from heat-treated wood materials come to the fore in terms of supporting environmentally friendly production in the wood sector. In this study, the total color changes (ΔΕ*) and surface roughness (SR) were investigated after heat-treated tree species were exposed to natural and accelerated weathering with and without varnish. In this context, test samples were first divided into two groups. Surface treatment was applied to the samples in the first group by applying modified WBV (A1) and normal WBV (A2), and the second group was left unvarnished. Then, one group of the varnished samples was subjected to natural weathering (NAT) for 90 days and the other group was subjected to accelerated weathering (QUV) for 720 h with VAS samples, and then the ΔΕ* and SR values of the samples were calculated. The results revealed that ΔΕ* was the lowest in the QUV WBV group, and NAT was more effective than QUV in ΔΕ*. The highest SR values among all groups were measured in the VAS group, and among the varnished samples, there was no statistical difference between A1 and A2 in SR values, except for Rq.