At-line validation of a process analytical technology approach for quality control of melamine-urea-formaldehyde resin in composite wood-panel production using near infrared spectroscopy.

The reactivity of melamine-urea-formaldehyde resins is of key importance in the manufacture of engineered wood products such as medium density fibreboard (MDF) and other wood composite products. Often the MDF manufacturing plant has little available information on the resin reactivity other than details of the resin specification at the time of batch manufacture, which often occurs off-site at a third-party resin plant. Often too, fresh resin on delivery at the MDF plant is mixed with variable volume of aged resin in storage tanks, thereby rendering any specification of the fresh resin batch obsolete.