Utilization process development for weeds in rice farms in central region in Thailand with application in furniture product designing for children

Development of utilization process of weeds in rice farms is adding economic value and the materials are weeds in rice farms in 22 provinces in central region of Thailand. This research aims 1) to study physical characteristics of weeds in rice farms in central region, 2) to develop production process and transformation procedures, 3) to design furniture for children from weeds in central region's rice farms and 4) to assess satisfaction of consumers with furniture products for children which are made of weeds in rice farms in central region. Procedures to transform weeds in rice farms as wood substituting material start from digesting weeds with size of 1-2 centimeter before sundried and boiled with caustic soda and salt together with guava leaves for 50 minutes. After that, it is composited with isocyanate by using hydraulic compressor with heat at 100 Celsius Degree. Wood substituting material's specific gravity is 0.74 with moisture at 8.84%, module of rupture (MOE) at 5.53 MPa, modulus of elasticity (MOE) at 314.85 MPa, compression stress at 10.54 and compression stress // at 4.96 MPa while hardness of the wood substitute is 3,541.41 N. The analysis result of house of quality which is utility, material and production process where data are transformed as designing function with TRIZ was found that needs of target group are utility, uniqueness, materials, production and reparation process with significance at 5.0. The pattern has been developed in 4 designs for assessing satisfaction in design selection and the result is F(3,326)=20.17, Sig=0.002. This indicates that new design is different among 4 types and the second design of furniture for children has highest mean satisfaction (M=3.88, S.D.=0.76). Therefore, this design is used to produce a prototype. The consumers were satisfied with the prototype of furniture for children at high level (M= 3.61, S.D. 0.93) with satisfaction in utility at high level (M=3.79, S.D.=0.74). It was discovered that mean of pair comparison was statistically significantly different for 2 pairs including price/ utility (Sig.=0.018) and material/ utility (Sig.=0.016). Factors to evaluate utility, price, material and production process can be employed to predict satisfaction with new products with statistical significance level at 0.05. It is also positively interrelated with effectiveness of prediction at 35.55% (R2 = 0.35). The prediction equation is Ŷ = 0.39 +0.430 X1 +0.149 X2 +0.242 X3 +0.344 X4.