Abstract: Commercial scale cottonwood veneer drying tests were conducted in continuous platen dryer with high-temperature heat-conducting oil as a heat-carrier and hot platen temperature was 192℃, platen preasure was 0.09 MPa (front section) to 0.18MPa(rear section). The research results showed that high temperature continuous platen drying with certain breathing cycle can dry the veneer from green [initial moisture content(MC) 149%] to final MC below 8% in 2 minutes. The dry veneer was basically flat and smooth with even final MC and no check. The thickness shrinkage of the veneer was average 5.3%, and the cross-grain shrinkage was 4.9%. The bonding strength was in 0 812MPa average,which slightly higher than that 0.779 Mpa of convection drying with net conveyer. The results showed that drying of veneer of cottonwood, grown in plantation with the method stated above, is feasible.

Key words: Cottonwood veneer, Continuous platen drying, Drying shrinkage, Split