Drying Schedules for Canelo Wood

Abstract

Canelo wood is a highly valued native species in Chile that shows delicate marbling patterns with a pinkish soft silver luster. Due to its decorative qualities, canelo wood is dried for the manufacture of furniture and musical instruments. However, canelo wood lacks vessels cells that typically transport the water in hardwoods. Per its drying behavior, canelo wood is considered a transition species between hardwoods and softwoods. Therefore, this article reports drying schedules that were developed for drying 25-mm and 50-mm canelo lumber. In addition, this article reports experimental overall mass transfer coefficients, so that drying times for each of the drying stages can be easily estimated.

Keywords:

• Drimys winteri
• Lumber drying
• Mass transfer coefficient
• Second growth canelo

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors thank INFOR-Chile for permission to publish these results.