Effect of heat treatments on physico-mechanical properties of Kelempayan wood

The treatment of wood performs as to enhance its resistance properties, thereby improving its dimensional stability, strength, and durability as compared to untreated wood. In this study, a kelempayan wood (Neolamarckia cadamba) was used because it is one of the potential fastgrowing species which can be as an alternative raw material for furniture components. The aim of this study is to determine the effect of physico-mechanical properties of kelempayan wood through oven and microwave heat treatments at different density groups. The wood billets left to air dried before cutting into the wood samples size for physical and mechanical testing. The samples were treated by using the oven at temperature of 105 °C for 24 hours, microwave at power of 90 watts with maximum rated power output of 1000 watts for 3 minutes and microwave laboratory scale. The physical test methods were performed according to ASTM D4442-20 standard. Meanwhile, the mechanical properties have been tested base to the BS 373 standard. The Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) was used to examine microstructure of treated samples. The results revealed that all treatments had a significant effect on the physico-mechanical properties of kelempayan wood. The microwave heat treatment effectively affected kelempayan wood by lowering the physical properties and increasing both compression and shear strength for mechanical properties. MOE and MOR strength were decreased for both oven and microwave treatment. Based on the SEM image, the microstructure of kelempayan wood shows that the heat treatment lowers the water uptake, and the wood cell walls absorb less water due to the hydroxyl groups amount reduction which as a result in decreasing of wood shrinkage and swelling. The advantages of heat-treated wood are reduced hygroscopicity and better dimensional stability. Therefore, it was suggested that heat treatment influenced the physico-mechanical properties of kelempayan wood which made it possible to be used as a raw material for furniture industry.