Lumber Drying Workshop

The Louisiana Forest Products Development Center, part of the Louisiana State University AgCenter, will be hosting a comprehensive 3 day lumber drying workshop “Drying Lumber For Quality and Profit” on July 23-25, 2008. The workshop will be held on the LSU campus in Baton Rouge, La. This workshop will thoroughly cover the lumber drying process from start to finish of hardwood and softwood lumber. In addition, participants will gain valuable hands-on experience in the laboratory periods. Some of the topics to be covered include wood-water relations, wood anatomy, EMC-temperature-RH, moisture meters, steam kilns and operation, kiln control principles, drying stress and degrade, statistical process control, trouble shooting, air drying and stain, and wood shrinkage. The instructors for the workshop include Drs. Todd Shupe, Qinglin Wu, and Charles Clément with the Louisiana Forest Products Development Center, School of Renewable Natural Resources, LSU AgCenter and Pat Bennett, Kiln Superviser, with Roy O. Martin Lumber Co. in Alexandria, La. Mr. Bennett has over 20 years of industrial hardwood and softwood lumber drying experience. All instructors are international experts in the field of lumber drying and wood-moisture relationships. Contact Dr. Todd Shupe for more information at tshupe@agcenter.lsu.edu or (225)578-6432.