THE EFFECT OF THE HEAT TREATMENT OF SESSILE OAK WOOD (Quercus petrea L.) FROM YOUNG TREES ON THE PROPERTIES OF PANELS WITH TRANSVERSAL GRAIN

Sessile oak from young trees represents asecondary resource with potential for superiorapplications in furniture panels providing theirdimensional stability to variations of relative airhumidity is reduced. A possibility to improve thisproperty was examined in this paper, by thermaltreatment of the raw material before manufacturingdecorative furniture panels with transversal grain.Panels with crosscut grain were manufactured fromboth heat treated and untreated wood and theirproperties were compared: dimensional changewith climate, the moisture content at equilibrium, theabsolute density, colour and their MOE and MOR.The results have shown that the thermaltreatment at 130oC for 2h of sessile oak from youngtrees has improved the dimensional stability and theequilibrium moisture content of the panels and didnot impair their mechanical strength. The colour gotslightly darker and density had an almost negligibledecrease by the heat treatment. Attractive bydesign, because of their grain orientation, but in thisway subjected to axial stresses perpendicular to thegrain, the panels could be used in furnitureapplications where the bending stresses are notcritical.