Birch is a tree that is actively used in the furniture industry. The secret of the popularity of such material is not even in the technical characteristics of the breed, but in appearance and absolute environmental friendliness.
Application area
Birch in the design of furniture is used due to its technical characteristics:
the tree is easy to process;
when sawing or other machining is not chipped;
in a steamed state it bends well.
Interior finishing work carried out in the house often does not do without the use of wood. The density of birch allows you to use it in carpentry of various nature. Taking as a material an array of birch, it is easy to imitate the decoration in the house with panels that visually resemble an expensive breed of wood.
Wood features
The birch has long been dubbed the tree of life. In Russia, it was believed that this was a pure and innocent creature, personifying the soul of a young girl who, according to legend, turned into a slender, slender birch.
The name of the tree comes from the Indo-European "ber", which means "light" or "clear". Birch (from Latin BΓ©tula) is a genus of blond trees belonging to the Birch family. In our region, it belongs to the breed with the highest variety of species and forms, density of plantings. That is why representatives of the forest industry publish different indicators of the value of the tree species depending on the region of distribution of birch. In general, there are about a hundred species of trees of the birch family in the world.
Wood characteristics
The wood texture is layered, with thin curls, often dark stripes, with a wide range of colors: from ivory to gray-red. The wood is homogeneous, without interspersed natural resins. Physico-mechanical characteristics at the highest level. Birch is characterized by a high level of strength under mechanical stress - shock and damage.
Birch is considered a species with an average density of wood. The density of birch, like other species, is determined by a special Brinell scale. According to a specially developed table, the hardness level of wood is estimated at 3.5 points.
Norm of natural humidity of birch and density of material
The density of wood is determined by the special aforementioned scale. The points set according to the data from the Brinell table are calculated according to the formula, thanks to which you can calculate the moisture content of the wood and compare it with the norm.
The Brinell density determination scheme consists in using a hardened steel ball with a diameter of only 10 millimeters. It is pressed into the surface of the sample for examination, applying a force of 100 kg to this. After that, the resulting hole is measured. The value of hardness is calculated by a special formula, and the coefficient obtained as a result of deductions is an indicator of density. The higher it is, the greater the density of birch . It is important to consider that this indicator can vary.
The density of birch of natural moisture (12%) is close to beech and even oak, which makes this wood a more popular material for furniture production than pine, the distribution of which is much higher, but the density of wood is several times lower.
Humidity is the first factor affecting density. To compare the hardness indices of wood of different species, the value leads to a single moisture index of 12%. Density and strength characteristics are closely interconnected. The higher the first indicator, the stronger the tree.
The iron birch used in the furniture industry with natural humidity has a hardness of 750 kg / m3 - it is a tree with a high density of material.
How to determine the density of dry or raw birch?
Raw wood is considered to be a moisture percentage of which exceeds 23%. This indicator is affected by the time of the tree felling, as well as the conditions for its further storage. To calculate the density of wet birch, you need the following data: mass and volume of a tree with a given moisture content. The density of raw birch is calculated by the formula Ο W = m W / V W , where W is the given moisture content of the wood.
The density of the material increases sharply under conditions of further wetting.
The moisture content of dry wood is zero. The density of dry birch can easily be calculated by the formula, which correlates the mass with its volume: Ο 0 = m 0 / V 0
The density index of such a breed will be lower, since the cell cavities, as well as the intercellular space of the wood, are filled with oxygen bubbles. The porous structure is less resistant to mechanical damage.
The tree enters the market in the form of round timber, lumber, veneer, plywood. The density of a birch, depending on its moisture content, is an important technical characteristic that you should be familiar with. Indeed, based on this, the scope of the material is determined.