Shingles inspire researchers to develop new timber building material

(CONNECT) Researchers at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) have developed a new type of wood-based panel made from wooden rods. They drew their inspiration for the type of wood separation from shingle production, which has a long tradition in the Alpine region. In view of the growing impact of climate change on forests and the construction sector, the production of panels from split rods is an obvious option, according to a report by Empa.

In this special splitting process, wood is split parallel to the fiber with minimal energy input and virtually no losses. The stiff and strong wood fibers are not cut through. The resulting irregularly shaped rods are captured by an automated camera system and fed into a neural network.

"If we use different types of wood of different qualities in the future, wood sorting will play a special role," explains Ingo Burgert, professor at ETH and research group leader at Empa. "We therefore use our machine learning algorithms to generate as much data as possible about each individual piece of wood in order to use it optimally for wood-based materials with defined properties." As a result, Burgert continues, "they can also be made from wood of varying quality and from hardwood species, produce less material loss and should be as strong as solid wood products".

This project is part of the Mainstreaming Wood Construction (MainWood) initiative supported by the ETH Board, which promotes the increased use of wood in the construction industry. A Center for Wood Materials and Structures is also planned, which will bundle wood research at Empa and ETH Zurich. ce/mm