Novel method to measure emission rate of VOCs - Emission of Formaldehyde

JIS (Japanese Industrial Standards) A 1901, a small chamber method, was established in January 2003 for the precise measurement of volatile organic compound (VOC) emission. JIS A 1902-2, a method for sampling, preparation of test specimens, and test conditions for adhesives using glass plates, was revised in December 2006. However, this method cannot be used for adhesives because this specimen is different from actual construction. Therefore, a new measurement method has been developed using a calcium silicate board (CSB) [1] for VOC emissions from adhesives. In this study, we measured the formaldehyde emission rate from four types of species to understand the actual conditions. Next, the formaldehyde emissions were measured using both CSB and stainless steel (SUS, a JIS standard) by the small chamber method. The VOC emission rates from two types of adhesives, B (vinyl acetate based resin emulsion) and W (ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer emulsion based adhesive), were measured by the small chamber method using CSB and SUS with added formaldehyde in the range 0.001-0.03 wt%. CSB was found to be more suitable than SUS to measure formaldehyde emission rate.