EVALUATION OF XILOPHONE MANUFACTURED WITH HEAT-MODIFIED BRAZILIAN WOOD SPECIE

The present research aimed to develop products for the musical instruments market using wood modified through heat treatments. Initially, a survey of wood traditionally used in musical instruments, or their parts was carried out. Subsequently, bibliographic research about the wood modification treatments was produced to know the technical limits and their characteristics and to identify which of these can be applied in Brazilian woods, being then chosen as the technique of heat treatment with the application of temperatures of 160ºC and 200ºC carried out in laboratory ovens. From this, the musical instrument xylophone was chosen as a test product to evaluate the use of the chosen technique of modification for the roxinho wood (Peltogyne sp.). Thus, the musical instrument was designed and produced with untreated wood and treated with the mentioned temperatures and evaluated the mass loss, specific gravity, resonance frequency, sound propagation velocity and dynamic modulus of elasticity (MOEd). The results indicated that the treatment with the temperatures used increased the sound propagation velocity and the MOEd, even with the decrease in the apparent density. Thus, the use of temperature at 160ºC is indicated as a technological product that can increase the final quality of the musical instrument.