Effect of oven and microwave treatment on physico mechanical properties of kelempayan (Neolamarckia cadamba) / Maryam Mohd Radzi

A treatment of wood performs as to enhance the strength of the wood which would improve the wood properties in terms of dimensional stability, strength and durability when it was differentiate with methods of drying treatment. In this study, a kelempayan wood (Neolamarckia cadamba) is chosen because it is one of the potential species 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 treatment at different portions (bottom, middle, and top). The kelempayan trees were harvested from UiTM Educational Forest Reserve of UiTM Pahang Branch and then has been converted into sawn timber using the facilities at Wood Industry Workshop of UiTM Pahang Branch. The logs were cut into the billets and then they have been cut into the wood samples size for physical testing (25 mm x 25 mm) and mechanical testing for bending (20 mm x 20 mm x 300 mm), compression parallel to grain (20 mm x 20 mm x 60 mm), compression perpendicular to grain (50 mm x 50 mm x 50 mm) and shear (20 mm x 20 mm x 20 mm). The samples were oven dried at temperature of 105 °C for 24 hours and microwave dried at 90 watts with maximum rated power output of 1000 watt by using domestic microwave oven for 3 minutes. The treated samples were analysed the physico-mechanical properties based on volumetric changes. The physical test methods were performed accordance to ASTM D4442-20 standard. Meanwhile, the mechanical properties have been tested accordance to BS 373 standard. The results were revealed that the physical and mechanical properties at different tree portions and methods of drying treatments have significant difference. Therefore, the oven and microwave treatment influenced the physico-mechanical properties of kelempayan wood which made its possible to be used as the furniture component parts.