Drying

Our company has a modern high-capacity industrial dryer and offers high quality wood drying services.

Our industrial dryer:

  • Has a volume of 280 m3
  • Dries merchandise for 2 lorries per batch
  • Performs technologically controlled drying
  • Has 3 temperature sensors 
  • Has 2 humidity sensors
  • Has a controller that manages the fans
  • Has another controller that "reads" the humidity outside and provides useful data to the first controller
  • Has a third controller that provides information in a database on a server from where one can export statistics in PDF format
  • Can send alarms by email or SMS from all 3 controllers

The dryer is mainly intended for drying our own products, but we also rent it out when it has free capacity.

The client usually opts for one of the three humidity levels below:

  1. airing: products are dried to a moisture content of 25-30%
  2. semi-drying: products are dried to a moisture content of 19-24%
  3. drying: products are dried to a moisture content of 14-18%

As for the duration, depending on the desired drying level, the technological drying process can last between 3 and 14 days. Drying times also differ depending on the product category. For example, to reach a moisture content of 18% for pallets or euro pallets, drying is done in 8-10 days, for timber - in 12-14 days and for firewood it can take up to 20 days to dry a complete batch.

Products are dried in a programmed and automated way:

  • If the wood is dried too fast (forced), the wood cracks. Through computer-controlled drying, depending on wood moisture content, indoor air humidity and outdoor air humidity, the heat in the dryer is kept up to the threshold where the wood would end up cracking. This is very important, especially for timber, where drying must be done so that the timber would not crack during drying. Cracks usually appear when the wood is heated too much and the wood sap is forced out, thus creating cracks between fibres.
  • If the wood is dried too slowly and/or without automated control of humidity and ventilation in the chamber, there is a risk the wood will mould during drying. Controlled drying takes into account the inside air humidity, the outside air humidity, the inside air temperature and controls them to achieve the best drying time, provided the wood does not mould.
  • Moreover, we dry wood in our industrial dryer differently, depending whether it is hardwood or softwood. For each wood type, the computer follows different drying programs to reach the optimal parameters: drying times vs. desired quality.

Thus, using technological drying, the fastest drying time is achieved without the wood cracking or becoming mouldy (as the case may be).

At the client's request, after drying, we can issue the necessary documents to certify the performed drying, including graphs showing temperature and humidity trends both in the dryer and in the wood throughout the drying time.