Abstract
Beech wood is mainly used for furniture, plywood, decorative veneer manufacturing or packaging. Timber or lumber is traditionally dried in kilns by processes often taking several weeks. This research deals with more rapid process called contact-drying process. Drying was performed using the heating plates with a temperature of 160 °C and pressures of 1.0 MPa, 1.4 MPa and 1.8 MPa. The results were compared to conventional warm-air drying. The warm-air drying mode was divided into two phases, with and without free water and bound water in the dried wood. The density of the samples increased remarkably during the contact-drying. The effect of the pressure of the heating plates was substantial. The difference in the average density between the pressure of 1.0 MPa and 1.8 MPa was more than 22 kg·m−3. The pressure of the heating plates affected the process and the resulting change in the sample thickness. The change in the sample thickness was more considerable in the case of the tangential samples. The thickness did not increase significantly after air conditioning. During contact-drying, the hygroscopicity and absorptivity of wood reduced on average by 21.24% and 25%, respectively, compared to warm-air drying.
Highlights
European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) is an important tree species with a rather large distribution in the countries of Western and Central Europe [1]
The results showed the effect of an increase in the pressure of the heating plates on a decrease in hygroscopicity (Figure 9)
The effect of 92the radial and tangential samples was statistically significant at the level of significance p < 0.05
Summary
European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) is an important tree species with a rather large distribution in the countries of Western and Central Europe [1]. Beech wood is mainly used for furniture, plywood, decorative veneer manufacturing or parquet (flooring). Most lumber must be dried prior to its use since drying reduces shrinkage, increases strength, reduces weight and improves overall manufacturing quality [2]. Timber or lumber is traditionally dried in kilns by processes often taking several weeks. Several methods have been proposed to increase the drying rate over the years. Several ways to reduce the drying time from weeks to hours [3], for example contact-drying, high frequency drying, and so forth are known in the world. Contact-drying is a method when wood is exposed to compression forces from heated platens with the purpose of increasing the moisture loss and reducing warp [4]
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