IMPROVING THE BENDABILITY OF BEECH WOOD USING THE MICROWAVE HEATING

This paper deals with the total deformation and loading force after plasticizing beech wood by microwave heating. There have been fewstudiesdevoted tothe examination ofmicrowave heatingforplasticizingof beech wood. Therefore, a procedure was developed to verify the use of microwave heating for the purpose of plasticizing. Maximum deflection and loading force were investigated on beech samples immediately after plasticizing by microwave heating. Static bending test with three-point loading principle was used for identification of maximum deflection. Plasticizing time had significant influence on the maximum deflection of beech wood. On the other hand, the moisture content and device power had no appreciable effect on the values of the maximum deflection. Loading force had contrary behavior: increasing wood moisture decreased the loading force, and increasing plasticizing time increased the loading force.

Keywords:  microwave heating, plasticizing,     maximum deflection, moisture content, beech wood.