IWT Product Information

IWT PRODUCT INFORMATION

You have a lot of options when it comes to wood treatment. Thermo modification is one of the latest trends in the wood conservation field. In fact, thermo conservation is the most popular and hottest-growing segment today, worldwide. Thermo conservation is hyper-environmentally friendly and is useful for a variety of products: outdoor furniture, cladding, decking, flooring and cabinetry. You’ll need the right equipment to get the job done, and that’s where American Wood Technology can help, especially with our unique Hydro-Thermo™ modification process.

BACKGROUND

Moldrup A/S or IWT, LLC., is a Danish company who specializes in the supply of equipment for drying and treatment of timber. During the many years in operations, our sister company in Singapore, Moldrup Systems Pte Ltd has developed and patented a number of very innovative systems for treatment and drying of timber.

The Moldrup process for thermal modification is one of the latest systems developed by Moldrup Systems Pee Ltd. This system is much easier to control and causes much less drying defects on the timber compared to the traditional systems for thermal modification of timber.

We are now also offering the smaller 2000 and 4000 b.ft. capacity plate vacuum plants for the smaller operation.

As quality and precise quality control is very important in the flooring industry, the Moldrup system has found widespread use in the flooring industry.

ADVANTAGES OF THERMAL MODIFICATION

By heating timber to 170 – 220 degrees C (338-428F) under controlled conditions in an atmosphere of steam, it is possible to upgrade the properties of many lumber species:

Turns ordinary species into a warm brownish color equivalent to the color of tropical hardwoods such as merbau, Teak etc. The brown color goes all the way through the timber so the timber can be machined a and sanded without exposing untreated timber

Many light colored timber species such as beech, ash, maple etc are often down-graded to rustic grade in the flooring and component industry when they contain color defects such as brown and red heart, blue stain, etc. Many of these color defects disappear when the timber is heat treated whereby the value of the wood is significantly increased – take look at our examples section.

Makes it possible to use plantation and or regular grown wood instead of tropical hardwood for applications where the dark color and high dimensional stability of tropical hardwoods normally is preferred.

Reduces the equilibrium moisture content of the timber by 30-50%

Because of the reduced equilibrium masture content and changes in the chemical composition of the lumber, the tangential and radial swelling/shrinkage of the timber is reduced 30-50% making the lumber much more dimensional stable. This is important when the lumber is used for solid flooring and window components in areas with high fluctuation in the relative air humidity.

Depending on the temperature used during treatment, thermally modified lumber shows some reduction in strength properties compared to untreated timber. Thermally modified lumber can have a slight smell of “burnt wood.

SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS
TECHNICAL DATA
(General dimensions only…system are designed to client specifications)