Drying and gas or vapor contact with solids – Process – Mechanical liquid removal
Reexamination Certificate
2002-01-11
2003-04-29
Lazarus, Ira S. (Department: 3749)
Drying and gas or vapor contact with solids
Process
Mechanical liquid removal
C034S382000, C034S396000, C144S361000, C144S380000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06553688
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for processing wood, and more particularly to a method for processing a piece of timber including heartwood from a tree whereby usable timber is gained.
2. Description of Related Art
Wood has for millenia been a very important material for furniture or buildings due to its availability and workability. To access the raw materials, once a tree is felled it is de-barked and the branches of the tree are trimmed away. The trunk is firstly cut into several logs or pieces with desired shapes, and the logs or the pieces are dried to reduce the moisture content to keep the wood from rotting, warping and so on. However, because the heartwood with the pith functions as an artery to supply water and nutrients to the branches and leaves from the root, the heartwood contains much more water than the other segment of the trunk. If a trunk containing heartwood is stored it easily cracks, splits and warps due to the uneven of the moisture content in the trunk during the drying process. Therefore, the conventional timber product does not contain the heartwood. A method for providing timber which excludes the use of heartwood (
40
) is shown in
FIG. 5
wherein one trunk is cut into several pieces of timber (
30
) with desired shape. Another method which excludes use of the heartwood is to cut the trunk into several planks and to combine the planks to a timber piece (
30
) as shown in FIG.
6
.
However, both those conventional methods contain the disadvantages as follow:
1. The efficient utilization of a tree is very low. Because the conventional methods discard the heartwood (
40
) and the branches of the tree are also cut off previously, the effective use of timber from a tree is only 40 to 50% which leads to excessive deforestation to meet the needs of consumers. In this age of environmental awareness it is apparent that such wasteful destruction of forests is unacceptable.
2. Excessive waste. The inefficient use of the natural resource is aggravated by the resulting waste material because to get a finished log of a certain size a much larger log must be found which is then cut to the required dimensions. A further aspect is that small trees are not usable due to being unable to meet finished size requirements. 3. The conventional methods are very troublesome. The conventional method is to cut a trunk of a tree into several pieces of timber (
30
) or into multiple planks except for the heartwood (
40
). In particular, the method as shown in
FIG. 6
to cut the trunk into multiple planks and to combine the planks into a timber piece (
30
) is costly due to the various processes involved.
4. The structural strength of the timber piece (
30
) is not very good. In particular, a timber (
30
) produced by the conventional method as shown in
FIG. 6
comprises several planks combined with glue, wherein the structural strength of the timber (
30
) is inferior to that of an integral piece of timber. The useful life of the timber (
30
) is also shorter than that of the integral material. In addition, if the timber (
30
) is combined with the planks from different trees, the grain lines on the combined timber (
30
) are not continuous and thus the appearance of the timber (
30
) is not beautiful.
To overcome the shortcomings, the present invention tends to provide a method for making timber products from a tree to mitigate or obviate the aforementioned problems.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The main objective of the invention is to provide a method for making timber including heartwood of trees. The method has steps of producing a piece of timber with a heartwood from a tree, pressure treatment to the timber with the heartwood, drying the timber and forming the timber to a desired shape. The pressure treatment process is to apply a desired pressure to the heartwood timber to reduce a moisture content thereof to an even level. This can prevent the timber with the heartwood from splitting, cracking or warping during the drying process. Thus, the efficient utilization of a felled tree can be increased, and the process for gaining timber products is simplified.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
REFERENCES:
patent: 2666463 (1954-01-01), Heritage
patent: 4428410 (1984-01-01), Strandberg
patent: 5190088 (1993-03-01), Thomassen et al.
patent: 5564199 (1996-10-01), Yamamoto et al.
patent: 5685353 (1997-11-01), Viitaniemi et al.
patent: 5862612 (1999-01-01), Bielfeldt
Lazarus Ira S.
O'Malley Kathryn S.
Wolf Greenfield & Sacks P.C.
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