Surfaces for sustainable engineered wood products

Today, approx. 5,000,000 m3 of sawdust are produced per year as a side effect of Sweden’s production of sawn wood products. A reduction of the saw cut width, which is often set too wide to compensate for dimensional demands later in the production, would lead to a better use of virgin wood material – a production increase corresponding to 500,000 m3 sawn be per mm reduced saw blade thickness is realistic. In addition, there is a corresponding improvement per mm of reduced sawing if dimensional stability can be increased. To drive the development of new saw blades and improved dimensional control, the resulting surface topography of the sawn wood must be included. Metrology and characterization of products’ functional surfaces is of central importance for smart and sustainable manufacturing but is – so far – underutilized in the wood industry. A well-controlled surface before drying can also enable green-gluing, which means that pieces of non-standard dimensions can be used, reducing waste after drying from 41% to 30%. The project will use both industrial and laboratory methods to measure and characterize surfaces of sawn wood and study which parameters best describe the sawn surface. The feasibility study will evaluate the potential and lay the base for step 2, forming a consortium of partners towards a full stage 2 application, where metrology and surface characteristics of sawn wood will be developed in purpose to produce more sustainable engineered wood products by using today’s waste.