For hardwood lumber producers, drying is an opportunity to add value to products and to enter new, previously inaccessible markets. For most hardwood users, such as furniture manufacturers, lumber drying is an essential procedure in the manufacturing process. As with any part of the manufacturing process, costs must be controlled. Costs can be magnified by improper drying techniques that cause degrade, resulting in quality losses; mistakes can be made that cause problems in subsequent manufacturing processes; and considerable amounts of energy can be wasted. As hardwood lumber prices escalate, ensuring that the highest yield is obtained from the hardwood resource becomes critical in controlling overall costs. Fortunately, drying techniques and systems are available that can produce a quality hardwood lumber product at minimum co st.

Drying Hardwood Lumber is an update of a previous Forest Service publication, Drying Eastern Hardwood Lumber by John M. McMillen and Eugene M. Wengert. Both publications contain information published by many public laboratories, universities, and associations, as well as that developed at the Forest Products Laboratory and other Forest Service units. The updated version includes much basic information from the original publication and new information relevant to new technology and the changing wood resource.

Report

FPL-GTR-118

• measurement: moisture content
• wood, lumber, timber

1. An optimization technique to determine red oak surface and internal moisture transfer coefficients during drying