Work at the Eastern Forest Products Laboratory of Forintek Canada Corp. in fundamental and applied research is highly varied. The laboratory's facilities and equipment reflect this need for specia- lization. Its equipment is as basic to lumber production as saws, cutters, and dry kilns, or as complex as a steam press or fluidized -bed gasifier. These facilities allow researchers to carry out chemical, physical, and biological analyses of wood. Similarly, evaluation of wood products, and the processes by which they are made, is aided by laboratory and commercial-scale testing equipme- nt. In each area of research, the EFPL facilities assist research- ers in developing new, innovative systems and products. The indus- tries and governments that Forintek serves are the direct benefici- aries of this valuable resource. The following pages outline the key facilities and expertise available at Forintek's Eastern Forest Products Laboratory.
Electrical methods of assessing the moisture content (MC) of wood are commonly employed by the wood-using industries. These methods make use of such electrical properties of wood as its electrical resistance, dielectric constant, and radio frequency power loss which vary with MC. Moisture meters using the relationship between MC and resistance are known as the resistance-type; those which use the relationship between MC and dielectric constant are the capacitance-type; and the meters using the relationship between MC and radio frequency power loss are the RF power-loss-type. In the lumber industry of eastern Canada the resistance-type meter is used almost exclusively.