Friday, May 15, 2009

Climatizing for Destination???

In theory it sounds logical, in reality it is completely illogical, but not impossible.

Most wood products manufacturers around the world use very similar processes and equipment to cure their wood.

They air dry the wood outside from 18 months to 5 years, before putting the wood into kilns and drying it to the desired moisture content. The desired final moisture content may vary slightly between manufacturers, but the norm is around 6%. The kiln drying not only dries the wood, but it is also a necessary conditioning process.

With 6% as the norm, some manufacturers may vary 1% + or -, but no more. Some soundboard manufacturers will dry their soundboards lower from 4 to 4.5% in an attempt to reduce cracking in the field, but this will increases pressure ridges and risks the possibility of cell damage unless they have very stringent controls.

With 6% + or – 2% as the norm, glues, abrasives, tooling, finish materials, as well as the climate within the facilities, are designed to work at their optimum within this range. The 2% variance would not be considered climatizing differences. If a manufacturer were to produce products with a large deviation in moisture content, say one at 6% and one 16% they would in theory require 2 different, facilities, equipment, material, and processes, to do it.

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