If you work in the woodworking industry, then you know that proper kiln dried wood is critical to producing quality products. Not only does it ensure that your wood is safe to use, but it can also help improve the overall appearance and finish of your work.
In order to understand how does the wood kiln drying process works, You need to understand why you need to dried lumber in the first place. Green lumber is made up of cells that are filled with water. The water in the cells is what makes wood susceptible to decay and insect damage.
As the dried lumber, the cells contract and the water is be evaporated. If the water is not removed quickly, it can cause the wood to warp or even crack.
Of course, there are many different ways to drying lumber, such as: air drying, solar kiln, conventional kilns, dehumidification kilns, steam kilns, etc.
Today we are going to learn how to use high frequency vacuum to kiln dry lumber.
High-frequency vacuum drying wood kilns use high-frequency electrical currents to create a vacuum in the chamber.
This pulls the moisture out of the wood quickly and efficiently. This type of kiln is becoming more and more popular because it is energy efficient and can dry wood quickly.
In this blog post, we will discuss how a high frequency vacuum drying wood kilns works and some of its benefits.
The first thing we need to understand are some of the important components of a high frequency vacuum kiln.
I. Main equipment components
1.Dry kiln
About the drying chamber, there are many suppliers whose drying chamber is round, the wood is square after being cut and stacked, putting it into the round wood kiln will waste part of the space;
So our engineers designed the square lumber kilns, which can use the drying space more reasonably, and we are the only manufacturing of square drying kiln in China, because we have been patented.
According to the accumulation of customers for many years, we understand that some customers of sawmill or furniture factory dry wood outdoors, so the drying equipment will be affected by the weather and rain to appear corrosion and other phenomena, so our wood kiln is made of 304 stainless steel, that is, long-term storage outdoors, the equipment will not corrode and rust.
The drying kilns is completely sealed, because the wood is dried under the vacuum environment, so that the wood can be dried quickly through the low temperatures and oxygen-free state.
2. High Frequency Generator
High-frequency machine is the main operating system. In order to realize humanized operation, we have developed two types of operation, button type and touch screen type, which is more convenient for customers to operate flexibly.
And there are automatic drainage, heated and other systems during drying process, easy to operate and more accurate detection of wood drying data.
3. Cooling system
The function of cooling tower is that when the wood in the drying kilns evaporates the water through vacuum and forms water vapor, then the water vapor is condensed by the cooling tower and left in the water storage tank, and finally the temperature decreases and is pumped away by the vacuum pump.
4. Hydraulic top
When the wood is dried in the vacuum kiln, in order to prevent the wood from deformation during drying, the vacuum box is installed with hydraulic system, weighing 9 tons, when the wood enters the vacuum box, the hydraulic one will press on the wood, so that the wood can be corrected and made more flat during drying.
5. Timber cart
In order to reduce labor and labor force, we install automatic lumber trolley, when we put the lumber intact on the lumber trolley, the lumber will be dried.
II. Operation method of wood drying
1. Equipment assembly
The equipment will be delivered to the customer by sea in a container. When the container is shipped, the workers will reinforce the equipment so that there will not be any damage in transportation;
When the equipment is received, detailed installation instructions will be provided and the customer will follow up the instructions to complete the installation of the equipment. Of course, if necessary, we also provide engineers to install and teach how to use.
2. Wood classification
After the equipment is assembled, the required wood will be classified, such as: hardwood, softwoods species classification; size specifications for classification; green lumber and old wood classification; thickness and end-use purposes, etc. for classification.
3. Pre-testing for moisture content
Before drying, we test the moisture content of the prepared wood and register it; then compare it with the moisture content after drying and analyze the data.
4. Loading
Place the prepared wood on the lumber cart, put the wood into the drying kiln, adjust all the systems according to the operating instructions and start working.
5. Water Release
After a period of drying process, the water will evaporation from the wood, and then we can release the evaporation water.
6. Measure the moisture content
After the drying is completed, the wood is pulled out using an electricity lumber truck to test the final moisture content of each part.
If you have any questions feel free to contact an engineer for answers!
III. Advantages
At present, probably most sawmills or furniture factories are still using traditional kilns, dehumidification kilns, solar kilns or air drying, etc., because these drying methods seem to be a bit more economical.
But with the update of the times, the final products made of wood, such as flooring, furniture, boat building, wood products, etc..
Customers have high quality grade requirements for the final product, so we have to ensure the quality in the raw material.
If the dried wood is cracked, deformed, etc., it will undoubtedly lose a lot of money. Because no one will already buy low quality wood at a good price to make the finished product. So this is very important.
High-frequency vacuum drying kiln can control the wood very well without cracking, deformation and other phenomena.
Because it is through the high frequency from the surface of the wood to penetrate the interior, and then from the center of the wood to the two sides of the drying, very good to avoid the phenomenon of deformation of wood.
And for many thicker boards and expensive hardwoods, high frequency vacuum kiln is a good choice. If you use traditional kiln to dry thick wood boards, it will not only take a long time, but also the drying quality is not good, which is a loss and waste for the expensive wood.
