euris – europeans using roundwood innovatively & sustainably processing techniques which can...

EURIS – Europeans Using Roundwood Innovatively & Sustainably

Processing techniques which can utilise low quality and/or small

dimension timber



Lecture Objectives

Student should gain:• Basic understanding of principal wood

processing techniques

• Basic modalities of wood sorting according to the chosen processing technique

• How to put value into a low quality/low dimension log of wood.



Introduction


Wood can be utilised as it is (roundwood), just through crosscutting, for many purposes such as agricultural poles, fences,…

Anyway in most cases it must be processed to be decomposed and recomposed to make the final product


Introduction


The decomposition of roundwood to produce semi-finite needs specific mechanical techniques

The recomposition of semi-finite to final products needs assembling techniques, mostly glues.

The complete process aims at adding value into the final product


First wood processing techniques

1. Sawing

2. Rotary cutting

3. Slicing

4. Clefting

5. Chipping

1 2

3

4 5



Sawing

The more utilised way to produce or edge boards, or, from low diameter wood, very thin elements for ski production or decoration layer for laminate parquet flooring.

The wastes are chips and slabs


Rotary cutting

The way to produce 1 – 2 mm thick veneers mostly for plywood production, generally after steaming.

Veneers can be glued together also to produce microlam or LVL.


Slicing

The way to produce very thin (some mm/10) veneers mostly for decoration of different kind of panels. This process too is made generally after steaming

Veneers can be glued together also to produce microlam.


Clefting

Radial-longitudinal cutting of wood, without producing chips as wastes.

To produce fuel wood or elements for non-permeable uses, such as elements (staves) for barrels or wooden shingles.


Chipping

From low quality/low dimension material, to obtain wooden chips.

Wooden chips can be then processed to produce panels or energy as they are.


Solid Wood Panels

Raw material:

Low quality/dimension hardwoods from coppices.

Low quality/dimension softwoods from thinnings.

Austrian pine (Pinus nigra L.)

From TuscanyEURIS – Europeans Using Roundwood Innovatively & Sustainably

Black locust and

Sweet chestnut


Production system


Product characterisation

Mechanical tests

Bending

Shear

Dimensional stability


Application examples

From the panel to the furniture


Open-air furniture

Raw material:

Low quality Umbrella pine from winter storms.


Production system

Sawing Ripping Finished glulam

Rotary cutting Veneers sorting Plywood

Semi-finished:


Production systemFinal products: open-air furniture for the regional park from where pines were from.

Assembling plywood and

glulam


Wood-plastic compositesFrom very low quality roundwood.

In the example from southern Italy plantation Eucalyptus.

The utilised Eucalyptus clones are characterised by a dense wood, having conspicuous shrinkages.

Moreover stems present high growth stresses which lead to the opening of cracks at felling


Production system

Low quality logs are chipped; chips are refined in order to obtain wood flour (b).

Wood flour is mixed at high temperature (200 °C) with thermoplastic resins like polypropylene and extruded (c).

The obtained product is a composite thermoplastic panel where wood flour act as filler.



The product characterisation pass through mechanical tests (-e- is a tension specimen). The increment in mechanical performances from the original propylene is low.

The thermoplastic panel allows its transformation by means of hot moulding into final products such as boxes (f) or roof tile (g)



A complete roof made with wood-plastic composite.

The obtained product is less polluting and more recyclable than the simple plastic.

Physical and mechanical improvement from the plastic of origin are very low.


Low technology/high design

Chestnut roundwood:

Basement made of chestnut roundwood; horizontal helix made of crossed chestnut slabs.

The project allows utilising low cost and low value material.

Merry-go-round made with chestnut roundwood



Seesaw made with chestnut wood

Chestnut sawn wood:

Vertical element made of two chestnut coupled boards.

The horizontal balancing element is a chestnut board; the rotation is ensured by metal elements.



Bicycle parking system with chestnut slabs

Chestnut slabs:

Waste elements can be worked with simple tools (even chainsaw).

The utilisation of very durable wood, like chestnut, is essential to ensure a long life of the artefacts.


Conclusions• Wood processing aims putting value

into wood products• The choice of the processing

techniques is strictly linked to the characteristics of the raw material.

• Raw material must be sorted before processing according to dimension/quality.

• Generally semi-finite must be recomposed to obtain final product.

euris – europeans using roundwood innovatively & sustainably processing techniques which can...

Documents

introduction euris europeans

tuscany euris europeans

decomposition of roundwood

low quality roundwood

production system slide

furniture slide

glulam slide

felling slide