Drying of regrowth native hardwoods to satisfactory moisture levels is a significant challenge for the processing industry. Dried quality is becoming increasingly important as sawn hardwood continues to move away from structural markets into appearance applications, but more difficult to achieve as the resource mix being processed becomes younger. An accurate predictive drying model is a powerful tool in schedule development, decreasing the reliance on expensive repetitive drying trials. This project updates the KilnSched drying model to allow more accurate modelling of the drying behaviour of regrowth blackbutt, jarrah, messmate, spotted gum and Victorian ash. The effect of high temperature drying and humidity treatments on spotted gum were also investigated, as was the economics of various drying methods on spotted gum and blackbutt.
You can download the report here:
