Colour measurements and gluability investigation on red heart beech wood (Fagus sylvatica L.)

Abstract

At present the light-coloured and workable beech wood is in great demand, especially in the furniture industry sector. Against that the red heartwood will be considered above all as inferior for higher value utilisation purposes. Untreated red heartwood from beech loses the colour intensity and will bleach out or become of grey discoloration gradually. While beech wood can be used only in the interior, the end users take much care about the colour stability of the product surface. That is why the colour stabilisation of differently treated beech red heartwood against the UV-Iight effect is an important field of research. In the frame of the investigation on the UV-Iight durability of red heartwood, the colour alteration in untreated red heartwood after different UV-irradiation cycles was measured in the CIE L a b colour coordinate system. Further measurements were done on beech wood samples after different surface treatments. But important questions also refer to the gluability of red heartwood. That is why the gluability of red heartwood solid wood was further investigation objective. In the investigation on the gluing behaviour of red heartwood the results were compared with those done on white beech wood. In addition, the influence of steaming on the stability after gluing has been investigated as well.