The effects of drying temperatures on wood preservative treatment in Kelempayan (Neolamarckia cadamba) wood

Demand of timber from other countries such as India and U.S increasing year by year. But, the timber from hardwood species decrease due to the low growing pattern of hardwood species. So, fast growing species such as Kelempayan wood is the best alternatives to replace hardwood species that have slower growing rate. However, fast growing species like Kelempayan wood has low resistance toward fungi and insect attacks. It causes the wood has limitation in use especially for production of furniture and construction materials. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of drying temperature on preservatives treatability of Kelempayan wood. Before preservative treatment, the wood was dried under air-drying condition, a constant temperature of 60, 80, 100 and 120°C. Result of this study showed that drying of the specimens dried at temperature of 120°C has the fastest drying time, while specimens dried under air-drying has the longest drying time. In case of preservative treatability, preservative retention tends to increase as drying temperature increased. The specimens dried under temperature of 120°C has the highest preservative retention. In addition, the same tendency was observed for preservative penetration. The specimens dried at temperature of 120°C could maintain high percentage of preservative coverage area to a deeper distance from its penetration surface.