METHOD OF TIMBER DRYING AND THERMAL TREATMENT Russian patent published in 2011 - IPC F26B5/04 F26B3/34 

FIELD: wood working industry.

SUBSTANCE: method of wood drying and thermal treatment includes loading of wood with high initial moisture into a vacuum chamber, afterwards the drying stage starts, including alternating stages of wood heating at atmospheric pressure and vacuumising. Drying through alternation of heating and vacuumising stages continues until wood moisture is in the range of 15-18%. Then additional drying of wood is carried out to an absolutely dry condition with continuous supply of thermal energy and gradually increasing pressure in the device due to evaporated moisture. After additional drying the wood is heated up to 200-240°C in accordance with the following law: where s - sample thickness, mm; ρ - basal density of wood, kg/m³; ΔT/Δτ - temperature variation per unit of time, K/sec. After achievement of the specified temperature of thermal modification, curing is carried out, as well as subsequent reduction of temperature down to 100°C.

EFFECT: method to dry and thermally treat wood makes it possible to reduce power inputs for process performance due to rejection of an expensive treatment agent, and to increase quality of produced goods as a result of preliminary high-quality drying of wood and rational mode of thermal modification process performance according to a certain dependence.

3 dwg