## 3 Results and Discussion
### Weight Losses  
Weigh losses were highest for the 10% feather MDF with or without wollastonite, closely followed by the 5% feather amended panels. MDF with wollastonite experienced the lowest weight losses, followed closely by panels with MDF alone or MDF with 5%feathers and wollastonite. The results indicate that the addition of wollastonite improvedthe fire properties of MDF but also helped to mitigate the effects of 5% feather addition.  
The negative effects of feathers on panel fire performance likely reflect the lack of integration between the resin, wood and feathers [3], resulting in a tendency for feather elements near the surface to ignite and expose more material beneath.  
Previous studies reported high and statistically significant R-squared values between different fire properties, such as time to onset of ignition and time to glowing [4,8]. In the present study, however, R-squared values between the properties was low and statistically  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Features (\% wt/wt)**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Wollastonite**} & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Time to Onset of (Seconds)**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Char Area (mm\({}^{2}\))**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Weight Loss (\%)**} \\ \cline{3-3} \cline{5-6}  & & **Ignition** & **Clowing** & **Flame Time** & \\ \hline
0 & – & 51 (6) CD & 76 (6) B & 1.0 (0.2) B & 3050 (290) & 1.8 (0.4) CD \\
0 & + & 64 (3) A & 99 (4) AB & 1.3 (0.1) B & 3020 (220) & 1.2 (0.4) D \\
5 & – & 48 (8) B & 91 (10) AB & 1.1 (0.5) B & 2800 (300) & 2.9 (0.3) B \\
5 & + & 51 (4) B & 106 (9) A & 1.1 (0.3) B & 2830 (280) & 2.3 (0.2) C \\
10 & – & 35 (11) D & 83 (12) B & 3.1 (0.9) A & 3400 (400) & 4.1 (0.5) A \\
10 & + & 53 (5) B & 92 (9) AB & 2.7 (0.6) A & 2940 (360) & 3.2 (0.3) B \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
* Values represent means of five replicates per treatment while figures in parentheses represent one standard deviation. Values followed by the same letter(s) do not differ significantly from each other by a [PERSON]’s multiple range test (\(\alpha^{\prime}=0.05\)). Char area values did not differ significantly from each other.  
\end{table}
Table 1: Effects of addition of chicken feathers and wollastonite on the fire behaviour of medium density fibreboard a.  
insignificant. In this regard, though a general relationship among fire properties was observed, there was inconsistency in the whole trend. The inconsistency was attributed to the opposing effect, as well as contradictory interaction of wollastonite and chicken feathers on the fire properties.  
Cluster analysis of fire performance attributes of the six MDF panel treatments showed that panels with 10% chicken feathers had distinctly different attributes (Figure 1). Previous studies showed that the same level of feathers negatively affected physical and mechanical properties, supporting the premise that addition of too much feather material was detrimental to a range of panel properties [3]. However, addition of wollastonite to the panels helped mitigate these effects on fire performance. The effect of wollastonite on fire properties was also distinguished in panels with no chicken feathers, supporting previous studies on the use of this additive to improve panel properties.