Overview / Glossary & standards

Glossary & standards

Standard descriptions give the scope only; consult the published standard for requirements.

Terms

UF / MUF / PF: Urea-formaldehyde, melamine-urea-formaldehyde and phenol-formaldehyde resins, the incumbent wood-panel binders. UF dominates interior particleboard and MDF; PF and MUF are used where moisture resistance is needed.
pMDI: Polymeric methylene diphenyl diisocyanate. A formaldehyde-free but fossil-based binder widely used for OSB and some particleboard and MDF.
PAE: Polyamidoamine-epichlorohydrin resin. A wet-strength agent from papermaking, used as the crosslinker in commercial soy adhesives.
PVAc / EPI: Polyvinyl acetate dispersions (assembly and furniture glue) and emulsion polymer isocyanate (a crosslinked dispersion used for some load-bearing uses).
NIPU: Non-isocyanate polyurethane, made from cyclic carbonates and amines instead of isocyanates.
Track A / Track B crosslinker: Tracker classification. A is renewable feedstock substitution for an established crosslinking chemistry; B is new reactive chemistry whose functional role must be demonstrated.
Press factor: Press time per millimetre of board thickness (s/mm) at a stated temperature, the usual way to compare cure speed on a panel line.
Mass balance: An accounting method that attributes renewable feedstock input to selected outputs. It does not mean the product contains measurably more bio-based carbon.

Supplier-reported: A claim made by the company that sells the product, without independent test data in the inspected source.
Announced / target capacity: Capacity a company says it plans or aims to have. It is not operating output and is never shown as such.
Hold: A relevant lead whose source is not yet cleared (version after the cutoff, internal discrepancies, or no access). Its results are not reported until resolved.
Machine-triaged lead: A discovery record screened by DeepSeek flash. The route and summary are provisional; the quote is checked by code against the record's title or abstract. It is not verified evidence.

EN 312: European specification for particleboards, defining board types P1–P7 by load-bearing and humidity conditions.
EN 319: Particleboards and fibreboards — determination of tensile strength perpendicular to the plane of the board (internal bond).
EN 317: Particleboards and fibreboards — determination of swelling in thickness after immersion in water.
EN 314-1 / EN 314-2: Plywood bonding quality, covering test methods with pretreatments (part 1) and requirements by bonding class (part 2).
EN 622: European specification series for fibreboards, including MDF.
EN 717-1: Wood-based panels — determination of formaldehyde release by the chamber method.
EN 16516: Construction products — assessment of release of dangerous substances, including VOC emissions into indoor air.
ASTM E1333: Large-chamber test method for formaldehyde concentrations from wood products, used for US CARB and TSCA Title VI compliance.

REACH Annex XVII entry 77: EU restriction on formaldehyde and formaldehyde releasers (Regulation (EU) 2023/1464). From 6 August 2026 it limits release from furniture and wood-based articles to 0.062 mg/m³ under its test conditions; road vehicles follow from 6 August 2027.