We work with large, wholesale and internet companies that cannot afford to control each single piece of wood flowing through their warehouses. These companies know the image and profit damaging effect of customer disappointment when they open boxes and find fungus covered tables or bug dusts.
In Indonesia most companies subcontract the kiln process to kiln companies: generally suar is stuffed in huge chambers together with different woods with different moisture contents without much attention to specific wood gravity and lumber thickness. No reliable moisture level can be achieved this way.
In addition, there is not much literature and acknowledged suar wood kiln schedules and very few companies have the know how to kiln thoroughly 10 to 12 cm thick slabs and avoid checking (crackings), honeycomb and other detrimental wood defects on the final product.
PT Chantik has gathered more than 20 years experience in suar processing. We own fully electronic controlled kiln chambers running 24/7 with 5 dedicated controllers.
We also use lifting engines to handle heavy lumbers along the manufacturing process.
Our thick slabs are air-dried during six months before being processed in the kiln to bring down the moisture level between around 12%, which enables the wood to adjust gently to drier atmospheres in Europe (EMC 11) and in the US (EMC 7-8%).
During transportation overseas, heat in a container can reach 80 degres celcius: it causes moisture from the inner part of the wood to migrate outwards creating an influx of humidity on the wood surface. The combination of high humidity and confined atmosphere of the container creates the ideal biotope for fungus to develop
At PT Chantik we closely monitor MC level in the heart of the lumbers and stops the kiln process only when the proper MC level has been reached in the depth in the wood. We use both electronically monitored and manual long-range hygrometers for double control along the process.
We also apply anti fungus chemicals to prevent any side effect of condensation.
Containers are set up in a way to avoid condensation during sea transportation, using moisture absorbants and a special packing way.
Sapwoodline is one of beautiful features of raw edge suar tables: unfortunately, this is the soft spot of the wood of which woodworms are the most fond of. If don’t you pay a relentless attention to this potential issue from the moment the wood is cut and all along the wood preparation process especially before the kiln oven, you might get in big trouble: there again the kiln process is critical to remove any risk of insect attack: insects have developed symbiotic relationships with and feed on fungi. Allowing animals to lay eggs in a damp wood is a high risk: insecticides might kill the bugs but they won’t kill the eggs that will hatch in container: starving new bugs will feed on the wood on their way to their knew countries and customer will be rewarded by a wood snowdust.
At PT Chantik we have implemented solutions to remove all termite risk.