Experiences with new veneer drying method

O. Paajanen*, H. Holmberg, P. Lahti and M. Kairi

This paper introduces a new type of contact drying method that has been developed at Aalto
University in Finland. The paper also presents experimental results from tests with the new drying
method. The drying system consists of a hot upper plate, a cold bottom plate, a vacuum inside the
drying chamber and a mechanical press. An experimental drying device was built and used in a
study to compare the new method with the currently used drying methods. The study includes
drying time experiments and tests on veneer quality. The results were compared to veneers which
had been dried in a convective dryer. Compared to conventional convective drying, the new
method decreased the total drying time significantly, by approximately 50%. The preliminary tests
show that the quality of the veneer was not compromised in the drying process. The new method
could be used in the plywood and LVL manufacturing process, as well as in special drying
applications. The results showed that the new system was a viable drying method and there is
potential for improvements in the veneer manufacturing process.
Keywords: veneer drying, contact drying, plywood
Introduction
Drying of veneer plays an important role in the
manufacturing process of plywood products. The drying
quality has a signicant impact on the properties of the
nal product, and lots of energy is used in the drying
process, which is important both from an environmental
and nancial standpoint. Plywood is the most important
panel product in Finland. There are three companies
producing plywood, with a total production of 1?4
million cubic metres in 2008 (Finnish Forest Research
Institute 2009). The share of exports was 80%. Plywood
boards are manufactured by gluing thin veneers together
under mechanical pressure. The plywood manufacturing
process consists of the following subprocesses: soaking,
peeling, drying, sorting, lay-up, gluing and hot pressing.
Convective drying is the most commonly used drying
method in the veneer and plywood industry. Although
the process controls and technical details of the
convective dryers have been developed and improved
constantly, the basic operating principle is still the same
as it was in the 1960s. The existing drying technology
has several problems: the dryers consume a lot of energy
and the quality of the veneer is often reduced after the
drying process. Veneer drying is a challenging process,
as the moisture variation in the wet veneer is very large
and the nal moisture level after drying is very low. To
overcome these problems, alternative drying methods,
such as contact drying, have been developed, but they
have not been widely accepted in the plywood industry.
A new kind of contact drying method has been
developed in Aalto University. The method has been
tested with an experimental device. These tests include
the effect of the drying method on drying time and
drying quality: nal moisture content and moisture
distribution.
The goal of this paper is to introduce the new drying
method and present some test results achieved with the
experimental device.
Background
Convective drying
Convective drying is the prevailing drying method used in
the plywood industry. In convective dryers, hot air is
directed perpendicularly onto the veneers as they pass
through the dryer. The air temperature inside the dryer is
high, up to 200uC, and the humidity is also high. The
removal of water happens through evaporation. The
operating principle of the dryer is presented in Fig. 1.
There are different variations to convective drying
technology, e.g. so called net dryers and roller dryers.
The technical details are different, but the drying and
principal working methods are the same in both
variations. According to a 1983 review on energy use in
Finnish plywood industry, drying consumes 70% of the
heat energy in the plywood process (So yrila et al. 1983).
The initial moisture content and the material proper-
ties of the veneer vary a lot. Also the conditions inside
the dryer are constantly changing. This leads to an
uneven nal moisture distribution in the veneer,
both between veneer sheets and also within individual
veneers. Too high a nal moisture content in the veneer
sheets creates problems during the later stages of the
plywood manufacturing process. To avoid this, the
target moisture content is set low, e.g. 6%. As a result of
this, a large proportion of the veneer is over dried, which
has an adverse effect on the veneer quality. The uneven
Department of Forest Products Technology, Aalto University School of
Chemical Technology, PO Box 16400, 00076 Aalto, Finland
*Corresponding author, email olli.paajanen@aalto.fi
26
2012 IWSc, the Wood Technology Society of
the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining
Received 10 February 2012; accepted 10 February 2012
DOI 10.1179/2042645312Y.0000000011 International Wood Products Journal 2012 VOL 3 NO 1
moisture distribution within a veneer sheet causes
quality issues, such as buckling and cracking of the
veneer sheet. There are also other problem issues in the
convective drying process. The dryers are large and
expensive and the process controls are complicated. The
wood material also causes problems: wood chips, loose
knots and other fragments cause a re hazard, increased
emissions and increase the need for maintenance (Lahti
et al., 2010).
Contact drying
An alternative drying method that has been extensively
tested is conductive drying, where the individual veneer
sheets are placed between heated metal plates. The heat
transfer method is conduction. The operating principle
is presented in Fig. 2.
The effective heat transfer in contact drying enables
shorter drying times and improves the moisture distribu-
tion. Also the quality of the veneer surface is improved
compared to convective drying. On the other hand,
fouling of the plates and feeding the veneer into the dryer
caused problems (Usenius et al. 1991). Still, contact
drying is seen as a promising technology to improve the
properties of veneer (Gu Lianbai 2007). According to
Throughton (2001), press drying offers advantages, such
as reduced drying time, reduced tangential shrinkage and
much atter veneer. Veneer atness is preferable with
automated lay-up lines. However, contact drying has not
been introduced to the plywood industry at large scale.
The method has problems, such as limited dryer capacity
and the accumulation of volatile wood components on
the heated plates, leading to signicant maintenance
problems, as already noted. The method is also thought
to lead to problems with the wood material itself, such as
veneer surface inactivation when high temperatures are
used. In industrial scale plywood production, the dryer
must have a large capacity. In order to achieve this,
contact dryer designs are often rather complicated.
New veneer drying method: operating principle
A new veneer drying method has been developed and
patented in Aalto University. The operating principle of
the dryer is presented in Fig. 3. The system has a heated
top plate, a cold bottom plate or support section, and a
pressing system. The veneer is pressed between the plates
and the heat transfer method is conductive, as in
traditional contact dryers. The major difference is that
only the top plate is heated, whereas the bottom plate is
cooled. This temperature difference drives the water
vapour towards the cold section, where the vapour turns
to liquid again. The bottom side is in contact with a
porous material, which stabilises the pressure between
the veneer and the cooled section. A metal wire belt or
cover is located below the porous material. Its purpose is
to ease the removal of water from the dryer. Also a
vacuum pump can be connected to the dryer. It is used
to lower the air pressure inside the dryer. In theory,
the use of a vacuum decreases the drying time, as there
is no diffusion resistance in a vacuum environment
(Holmberg et al., 2009).
Materials and methods
Equipment and materials
An experimental dryer was built to evaluate the dry-
ing method. The concept had been tested on a small,
laboratory device earlier. The structure of the experi-
mental device is shown in Fig. 3. A conventional
convection dryer was used to dry the reference veneer
material used in the quality tests. The device is a
laboratory scale dryer manufactured by Raute. The
veneers were dried individually in the electrically heated
dryer. The veneers are held in a frame, which travels back
and forth inside the dryer, simulating the environment
inside an industrial veneer dryer equipped with nozzle
boxes. Owing to technical limitations, the size of veneer
sheets was 4506500 mm. With the new system, the size
of the veneer was 4956520 mm.
2 Contact dryer operating principle
1 Convective dryer operating principle
3 New dryer system operating principle
Paajanen et al. Experiences with new veneer drying method
International Wood Products Journal 2012 VOL 3 NO 1 27
Test veneer was peeled using a Raute industrial scale
lathe, using a similar set-up as used in industry. The
thickness of veneer was 1?5 mm. Altogether 12 bolts
were peeled and the test veneers were chosen randomly.
The bolts were conditioned for 24 h in y40uC water.
After peeling the veneers were cut into sheets, divided
into groups, wrapped in plastic and transferred to the
dryers. The dryer tests were done as quickly as possible
after peeling, usually within 24 h.
Test plan and dryer settings
The drying tests were done in two series, described in
more detail in an earlier conference paper (Lahti et al.,
2010). First, the drying times and curves were established,
followed by the examination of the drying quality,
specically moisture distribution in the veneer. The third
part of the study was an examination of veneer quality.
The dryer temperature was 200uC with both of the
methods. The vacuum pump was used with the new
device. The pressure settings were 250 mbar and ambient
(1000 mbar). Plate pressure was recorded to be 3?8 MPa
with the new device.
Experiment 1: drying times and drying curves
The drying curves were determined by recording the
weight loss during drying. Since online measurement is not
possible with the new test dryer, the data were acquired by
measuring the mass before and after drying at different
time points. The rst veneer was dried for 20 s, the second
one 40 s and so on, with 20 s steps, until the veneer was
deemed dry. Tests were repeated ve times. The data were
used to determine the drying curves with regression
analysis. The data for the convective dryer were acquired
by using the dryers integrated scale system, which can
measure the weight of the veneer approx. every 5 s during
the drying process. Dry mass of the veneer is needed for
moisture content calculation. A large number of speci-
mens meant that it was not practical to dry every veneer in
a drying oven after the tests. Instead, the average value for
the dry mass was calculated by drying a number of veneers
from each test bolt. This average value was used when
calculating veneers from the corresponding bolt.
Experiment 2: moisture content distribution
Moisture content distribution was studied using the oven
dry method. The veneers were dried to predetermined
moisture state using the data from drying curve experi-
ments, followed by weighing and cutting. Each sheet was
cut into 12 pieces, which were weighed again and marked.
Finally, the specimens were dried in an oven until
completely dry and weighed. The moisture content dis-
tribution between veneers and within individual sheets
was calculated using this data.
Experiment 3: veneer strength testing
Veneer tensile strength was used as a measure for veneer
quality. The veneers were tested using a MTS/Zwick
strength evaluation machine. A number of veneers were
dried using with the two dryer systems. The dry veneers
were cut into specimens and conditioned in RH65
environment before strength testing. The specimen size
was 506150 mm.
Results and discussion
Drying time
The comparison of drying times is presented in Table 1.
The drying time of the free water (approximation) and
the total drying time are presented in the table. The
effect of vacuum is not presented in this table, as it is
more clearly seen in the drying curves. In the new drying
method, free water is removed four to ve times faster
compared to the conventional dryer. The total drying
time is reduced y50%. The remarkable difference can be
explained by the more efcient heat transfer in contact
drying. The heat transfer resistance is practically non-
existent between the hot upper plate and the veneer
surface. The fast heat transfer increases the pressure of
gaseous components inside the veneer. These gaseous
Table 1 Drying time comparison
Drying method Temperature/uC Pressure/mbar Initial MC/kg kg
{1
dm
Final MC/kg kg
{1
dm
Time/s
Contact 200 1000 0
.
84 0
.
28 20
Convection 200 1000 0
.
75 0
.
28 80
Contact 200 1000 0
.
84 0
.
05 80
Convection 200 1000 0
.
75 0
.
05 150
4 Drying curves with new drying method
Paajanen et al. Experiences with new veneer drying method
28 International Wood Products Journal 2012 VOL 3 NO 1
components expand and push the free water mechani-
cally out of the veneer, which is probably the reason for
the effective water removal during the early stages of the
drying process (Holmberg et al., 2009).
Drying curves
Figure 4 shows the drying curves with the new method,
using a drying temperature of 200uC and both with and
without vacuum. The vacuum accelerates the mass loss
in the veneer. It was conrmed later that the average
initial moisture content was 0?84 kg
H
2
O
kg
{1
dm
for the
ambient pressure group and 0?95 kg
H
2
O
kg
{1
dm
for the
vacuum dried veneer group. A similar drying curve
with the convective dryer is presented in Fig. 5. The
drying time is almost 50% shorter with the new drying
method.
Moisture distribution in veneers
Table 2 shows the moisture distribution from a series of
test veneers. The conventional dryer was not included in
this test, as previous experiments have shown that the
moisture distribution is rather uneven when using the
convection dryer. Large moisture variation causes defor-
mation of the veneer. The press dried veneer sheets are
usually very smooth and straight after drying, but they can
deform later, if the moisture variation within the sheet is
high. In the tests, the drying time was the same for both
dryer settings. As a result, the vacuum dried specimens
had lower nal moisture content. Overall, the nal
moisture content was lower than the expected (5%),
meaning that the drying time was too long in this
experiment. There was some moisture variation between
the sheets, but the variation within individual veneers was
low.
Table 3 shows the moisture distribution within one
veneer sheet which was dried with the new method. It is
worth noting that the middle of the veneer is drier than
the edges of the veneer. The vacuum did not have a
major effect on results in this test.
Veneer strength
Figure 6 presents the strength test results. According to
the results, the veneers dried using the new method seem
to be on average stronger than the ones dried with the
convective dryer. Still, as the deviation is rather large in
all groups, variance analysis conrms that there is no
statistical difference between the groups. There were
altogether 229 accepted test specimens in the groups
(112, 51 and 66).
It can be assumed that the new drying method does
not produce worse quality compared to current drying
technology. It should also be noted that at this stage,
the new dryer or its operating parameters were not in
any way optimised regarding the veneer quality. Fur-
ther research may provide improvements in the veneer
quality.
Conclusions
A new kind of contact drying method has been pre-
sented in this paper. In the laboratory tests free water
was removed 4-5 times faster with the new method,
which shortens the drying times approximately 50 %
compared to a convective drying device. The moisture
variation between different veneers, as well as individual
veneers, is low. The strength of the veneer is similar
compared to conventionally dried veneers. A new, larger
and improved dryer has been recently built at Aalto
University. Results from the rst drying experiments
with the new device are similar to the ones presented in
this paper. The new method could be used in the
plywood and LVL manufacturing process, as well as in
special drying applications. The results showed that the
5 Drying curve with convective dryer (Holmberg et al.,
2009)
Table 3 Moisture (%) distribution within a single veneer,
example
A B C
1 3
.
28 3
.
23 3
.
55
2 2
.
51 2
.
75 2
.
6
3 2
.
51 2
.
3 2
.
62
4 2
.
65 2
.
64 2
.
51
Table 2 Moisture content after drying, new method
Drying method Temperature/uC Pressure/mbar Average MC/% Standard deviation
Contact 200 1000 3
.
9 1
.
5
Contact 200 250 2
.
7 1
.
2
6 Veneer strength
Paajanen et al. Experiences with new veneer drying method
International Wood Products Journal 2012 VOL 3 NO 1 29
new system was a viable drying method and there is
potential for improvements in the veneer manufacturing
process.
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30 International Wood Products Journal 2012 VOL 3 NO 1