Through transverse compression of wood, the density of the material is increased, improving some mechanical properties, such as hardness and abrasion resistance. This work presents the first results of a large-scale study on the continuous thermo-mechanical densification of wood in a belt press-type machine. A continuous process allows for a higher throughput and less constraints on the length of the input material compared to a batch-type process. Additionally, an integration into the continuous wood processing chain may be facilitated (Neyses 2019). The press used in this study is a prototype acting as a research and development platform and its working principle is presented in Neyses et al. (2022). The objective was to study the influence of the process parameters and input material properties on the performance of the belt press and the properties of the densified wood to obtain further insights into the possibilities and constraints of the continuous densification of wood.
Keywords: modification, process development, wood compression
Authors
Alexander Scharf
Luleå University of Technology, Sweden
Benedikt Neyses
Luleå University of Technology, Sweden
Dick Sandberg
Luleå University of Technology, Sweden
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