Continuous densification of wood with a belt press: the process and properties of the surface-densified wood

Abstract

Thermo-mechanical densification of sawn timber results in improved mechanical properties, but densified wood remains a fairly expensive niche product, partially because of high-cost batch processing. Densification in a continuous process could address this problem and was shown to be possible in previous research. The outcomes were limited to proofs-of-concept, partially due to insufficient cooling capabilities of the used densification equipment, resulting in high spring-back. Therefore, a novel continuous process using a belt press to densify full-sized sawn timber has been conceived. The press ensures almost constant contact between the wood and the heating and cooling elements. The study aimed to analyse how the processing temperature, speed and compression ratio affected the density profile, spring-back, set-recovery, Brinell hardness, and bending properties. Results showed a density increase concentrated close beneath the surface in contact with the heating element and approx. 20% spring-back. Belt speeds above 2 m min−1 caused higher spring-back due to the reduced contact time between the wood and the heating element. Brinell hardness increased by up to 250% at a compression ratio of 27% while bending properties were unaffected. Belt temperature and speed were shown to be critical factors to consider for the future optimisation of the belt-press process.