Effect of steaming in the artificial drying of coigüe of Magallanes wood (Nothofagus betuloides)

Abstract

The work consisted on subjecting Nothofagus betuloides (Mirb.) Oerst., sawed wood at three different levels of steaming on the beginning of drying process (4, 8 and 10 hours) and then to a standard conventional drying. The effect of steaming on wood quality and the time required to obtain the desired moisture content on wood (8%) were evaluated. The raw material was provided by daily production of an industrial plant, located in the Punta Arenas city, southern Chile. The selection of sawed wood was randomized to obtain a total of 150 fresh-sawedstate samples of 1” x 6” x 2.5m, corresponding to 1.5 m3. The experiments was taken out in the wood drier equipment of Forestry Faculty of Universidad Austral de Chile. Results show that increasing the time of presteaming treatment improves wood quality and reduces final time of drying, specially 10 hours that presented better results on quality. The time of drying that provides a total time of 302 hours or 8% less than control.