Wood mechanical densification: a review on processing

ABSTRACT

As a renewable and low-price material, wood has been used extensively in the construction, furniture and other fields. However, the mechanical strength of most wood species is moderate or low, which cannot meet the need of some advanced engineering structures and applications. High-strength wood resources are scarce and usually expensive. Therefore, it is of great significance for economic and sustainable development to improve mechanical properties of medium or low-density wood. Mechanical densification process is considered an effective method to improve wood mechanical properties. Compared with chemical methods, it has great advantages of preserving the eco-friendly characteristics of nature wood and environmental protection. Many researches and technologies of wood mechanical densification have been reported and attempted. This study summarized, classified and compared the different mechanical densification processes according to their commonality and individuality. The characteristics and disadvantages of different processes were also discussed and analyzed with a purpose of inspiring researchers and entrepreneurs to ameliorate the technologies.

KEYWORDS:

• Wood
• densification
• heat treatment
• steam treatment
• thermo-hydro-mechanical densification
• thermo-mechanical densification
• non-adding steam densification
• adding steam densification
• processing
• high strength wood
• high density wood

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the financial support from the Foundation of International Centre for Bamboo and Rattan (1632019002) and the Natural Science Foundation of China (32071856)

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the [National Natural Science Foundation of China 32071856]; [Foundation of International Centre for Bamboo and Rattan 1632019002].