Lightweight chipboards from agricultural plants

One aim of the European collective research project called DIPP is the development of lightweight chipboards made from annual and perennial plants such as hemp, sunflower, topinambur, maize and miscanthus. These lightweight particle boards are intended to be a possible cheap substitution for traditional wood-based chipboards used in the furniture industry. Therefore the requirements of the EN 312 of boards for interior use e.g. furniture used in a dry environment have to be fulfilled. To produce lightweight boards, either low density particles can be used or alternatively large quantities of cavities have to be introduced into these boards. In this way some agricultural plants are most suitable for the production of lightweight chipboards, because the stalks of sunflower (Helianthus annuus), maize (Zea maize) and topinambur (Helianthus tuberosus) are filled with natural foam, the parenchyma cells.