• Huang, Chih-Lin
  Weyerhaeuser Company, Tacoma, WA
  

An effective method for inducing cell-wall checks in a microtomed wood radial section by ultrasonic treatment is described. Congo Red enhances cell-wall fibrillation in ultrasonic-treated sections. The amount of fibriliation and checking increases as ultrasonic treatmen continues. However, too many fibrillation generated either by prolonged ultrasonic treatment at 47 kHz frequency was found to be satisfactory to induce checks in 15-μm-thick southern pine sections. The ultrasound check-inducing technique is most effective on southern pine fibers with large diameters and high fibril angles.