Method of seasoning lumber
OwnerHyogo Izumiinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A three step process to season lumber to reduce cracks in the lumber and reduce warping of the lumber. In a first step, the lumber is piled up into a pressure vessel for seasoning. The vessel is charged with saturated steam, the pressure of which fluctuates within the pressure vessel. This is done to enable any contained water within the vessels capillary tubes and cell cavities to evaporate at the same rate. Thereafter, as a second step the lumber is taken out of the pressure vessel in order to allow free water to evaporate from the lumber. The lumber in a third step is placed into the pressure vessel again and charged by a super saturated steam by using a flow of super saturated steam until remaining water is evaporated, thus forming lumber that is seasoned.
Claims8
A method of seasoning lumber comprising the steps of;
- (a) first, placing the lumber in a pressure vessel, charging and discharging saturated steam into and out of the pressure vessel in order to fluctuate the pressure in the vessel until the inner temperature of the lumber becomes uniform, and thereafter discharging the saturated steam from the pressure vessel, while maintaining the temperature uniform in order to boil and evaporate the water contained in each tissue of the lumber, to form the lumber into a condition which can be seasoned uniformly by additional steps;
- (b) second, taking the lumber out of the pressure vessel until free water contained in the lumber evaporates therefrom;
- and
- (c) third, placing the lumber containing no free water back into the pressure vessel to heat the lumber in a pressurized condition by using a flow of superheated steam until the remaining water is evaporated from the lumber.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.