INFLUENCE OF PRESSING PARAMETERS ON DIMENSIONAL STABILITY AND SELECTED PROPERTIES OF PRESSED BEECH WOOD. I. DIMENSIONAL STABILITY AND DENSITY

This work was aimed at investigation of the influence of pressing parameters (pressing temperature, pressing time, compression degree) on density, hardness and dimensional stability of beech wood specimens. The specimens, with an initial moisture content of 17 %, were pressed in tangential direction. The results show that the dimensional stability significantly improved with increasing pressing temperature and time. Under the given conditions, the optimum temperature was 200 C and the optimum heating time was 6 minutes. These pressing parameters, however, could not guarantee the appropriate dimensional stability under moisture loading.