IN THIS STUDY, THE EFFECTS OF THE WOOD QUALITY USED FOR THERMAL MODIFICATION ON THE PHYSICAL AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OBTAINED AT TWO TREATMENT TEMPERATURES COMMONLY USED AT THE INDUSTRIAL LEVEL WERE EVALUATED IN ORDER TO VALIDATE EXPERIMENTALLY THE PILOT SCALE PROCESS FOR ITS FUTURE INDUSTRIAL SCALING. THE QUALITY OF THE INPUT RADIATA PINE REFERS TO THE PRESENCE OF NATURAL DEFECTS OF WOOD, AS WELL AS THE AMOUNT OF JUVENILE WOOD. SELECTED THERMALLY MODIFIED SAMPLES WERE USED TO MEASURE SOME QUALITY MARKERS (PHYSICAL, MECHANICAL, OPTICAL) AND TO FIND THEIR CORRELATIONS DUE TO QUALITY OR TREATMENT, SO AS TO OBTAIN THE BEST CHARACTERISTICS OF THE HEAT-TREATED PRODUCTS. THE RESULTS INDICATED THAT THE QUALITY OF THE INPUT WOOD WAS ONLY RELEVANT TO THE MILD TREATMENT (190 °C), FINDING AN ACCEPTABLE CORRELATION BETWEEN THE WEIGHT LOSS AND THE QUALITY USED (FIRST QUALITY). AFTER BOTH TREATMENTS, THE ORDER OF ANISOTROPY WAS KEPT AND THE DIMENSIONAL CHANGES WERE SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCED; THUS, THE WEIGHT LOSS DURING TREATMENT DID NOT DRAMATICALLY AFFECT ITS ANATOMICAL STRUCTURE. CLUSTERING THE DATA BY STATISTICAL PROCEDURES WAS POSSIBLE TO OBSERVE THAT SAMPLES OF LOWER QUALITY WERE ORDERED ACCORDING TO THE TREATMENT TEMPERATURE, INDICATING A STRONG INFLUENCE OF THE TREATMENT ON THE PROPERTIES OBTAINED. THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES REVEALED THAT UP TO 190 °C THE CHEMICAL CHANGES THAT OCCUR ON WOOD AFFECTED POSITIVELY THE VALUES (MOE INCREASED BY ABOUT 15?32% AND MOR SLIGHTLY DECREASED?

WOOD DRYING IS AN IMPORTANT PROCESS FOR ADDING VALUE AND MANUFACTURING INNOVATIVE PRODUCTS. EUCALYPTUS NITENS WOOD IS INHERENTLY DIFFICULT TO DRY BECAUSE OF ITS NATURAL PROPENSITY FOR CHECKING AS WELL AS COLLAPSE AND SHRINKAGE. LUMBER RECOVERY AFTER INDUSTRIAL DRYING OF EUCALYPTS IS ALSO VERY LOW. THIS STUDY MEASURED THE WOOD QUALITY OF E. NITENS JUVENILE WOOD (13 MM THICKNESS) AFTER RADIO-FREQUENCY VACUUM (RFV) DRYING AND WOOD DRIED IN A CONVENTIONAL KILN DRYER (KD). DRYING CYCLES WERE PERFORMED USING A RADIO FREQUENCY VACUUM DRYER WITH A 3 M3 OF CAPACITY AND CONVECTIVE KILN-DRYER EQUIPMENT WITH A 3.5 M3 OF CAPACITY. THE RESULTS SHOWED THAT THE DRYING TIME USING THE RADIO FREQUENCY VACUUM METHOD WAS REDUCED BY 47% WHEN COMPARED TO CONVENTIONAL KILN DRYING. THE SHRINKAGE WAS SIGNIFICANTLY LOWER IN THE RFV THAN IN THE CONVENTIONAL KD. THE VOLUMETRIC COLLAPSE DECREASED BY APPROXIMATELY 60% IN THE RFV DRYING. RFV DRYING OF E. NITENS JUVENILE WOOD IMPROVES THE WOOD QUALITY FOR SOLID WOOD PRODUCTS BECAUSE THE INTENSITY OF SURFACE CHECKING AND COLLAPSE ARE REDUCED.

A TREATMENT IS PROPOSED TO SANITIZE WOOD FOR EXPORT PACKAGING USING RADIO FREQUENCY EQUIPMENT THAT IS CAPABLE OF TREATING WOOD. THIS WAS ACHIEVED BY OPTIMIZING THE SANITIZATION PROCESS AND DEVELOPING AN EQUATION TO PREDICT THE TOTAL SANITIZATION TIME. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS DETERMINED THAT THE SEPARATION OF PLATES AND THE POWER DENSITY OF THE EQUIPMENT SIGNIFICANTLY INFLUENCED THE DURATION OF A SANITIZATION PROCESS USING RADIO FREQUENCY HEATING, WHEREAS THE THICKNESS OF THE MATERIAL WAS NOT AS INFLUENTIAL FOR THE OVERALL PROCESS. FURTHERMORE, THE SANITIZATION PROCESS DID NOT INFLUENCE THE QUALITY OF THE WOOD; THEREFORE, THE PROPOSED SANITIZATION PROTOCOL PROVIDED A BALANCE BETWEEN DURATION AND THE QUALITY OF THE FINISHED RADIATA PINE PACKAGING MATERIAL.