Timber drying techniques and its defects / Norjannah Mariam Hanna Ismail

Lumber drying is one of the most times- and energy- consuming steps in processing wood products. Basically timber drying is the process to remove the bound moisture contained in walls of the wood cells to produce seasoned timber. Drying process can be achieved in a number of ways, but the aim is to remove water at a uniform rate through the piece to prevent damage to the wood during drying (seasoning degrade). Dried timber tends to have superior dimensional stability than unseasoned timber and is much less prone to warping and splitting in service. In higher grades of timber, the process of seasoning can enhance the basic characteristic properties of timber, increasing stiffness, bending strength and compression strength. While, wet wood is unstable, will not maintain its original size no matter how accurately machined, will not sand well, will not glue well and cannot be finished properly.