Development and evaluation of criteria and methods for the qualitity assurance of thermally treated hardwood

Status

ongoing

Summary

Thermowood is thermally treated wood that differs from untreated wood by its increased durability, improved dimensional stability and continuous homogenous color change. Due to its characteristic properties new areas of application for this renewable raw material emerge, e.g. new terrace coverings for the exterior and products for the wellness sector.

This project deals with thermowood from hardwood (mainly ash and beech), which is basically not available on the market up to now.

The goal of the project is to develop criteria and measurement methods for the quality management of thermally treated timber from hardwood. To do that and also from a customer oriented point of view it is necessary to at first define quality criteria and quality classes, before one can start with the determination of assessment criteria and relevant measurable quantities. Connected with this is the choosing and adaptation, if necessary also the development of measurement methods, which allow to obtain information on relevant data already during the production process. This is necessary since clear differences in the final color of the thermowood can be found after identical process runs due to differing initial humidity of the wood and different growth regions of the timber. To get a better hold of this problem a process database will be developed, which should enable the producer to react more precisely to customer needs and deliver optimized products. It is planned to demonstrate the chosen measurement methods in a test plant.

The process control and quality assurance will enable the producer of thermowood, to deliver products with properties, which have been defined in advance. By consulting the database it will be possible to supply the customer always with thermowood of the same quality and color independent of the initial condition of the wood. This will increase the customer acceptance drastically and open totally new market perspectives for the sustainable basic material thermowood. By increasing the efficiency of the production it will be possible to reduce the use of raw material (less rejects) and energy (no excessive treatment).

Contact

DI (FH) Stephan Schönberger
Markt 113
3334 Gaflenz
Austria
Tel.: 0043 (0)7353 204-18
Fax.: 0043 (0) 7353 204-6
E-Mail: stephan.schoenberger@thermoholz.at