In the beginning of this month, we had our in-person project meeting of the Hardwood springboard to propel underused wood species into construction. Researchers from ENSAM in France, the University of Granada in Spain and the University of Liege in Belgium visited Edinburgh, and we talked about our hardwood-related challenges and successes. Below you can see the presentations of our research seminar.
On hardwood research in France: Presentation by Guillaume Pot, ENSAM
On hardwood research in Spain: Presentation by Antolino Gallego, Francisco Rescalvo and Yaiza Fuentes García , University of Granada
On birch research in Belgium: Presentation by Tom Mortelmans, University of Liege
On the effect of growth speed on wood properties of birch: Presentation by Timon Luizi, University of Liege
We once more realised that, even though our hardwood industries work at quite different scales, we all face similar challenges. None of us is using their hardwoods well – more than half of the harvest goes to firewood everywhere. This is due to a lack of forest management, but also due to processing chains and limited knowledge about wood properties and timber potential.
There is some overlap in the species we are interested in. In the UK and Belgium, we are thinking about birch. In France, Belgium and the UK we are interested in red oak. In Spain and the UK, sweet chestnut is high on the list of interesting hardwoods.
Even where there is no direct overlap in species, we can work together to improve the hardwood value chain for use in structural products. Foremost, we want to improve strength grading options for hardwoods, by making strength classes of EN 338 more suitable for a wider range of species, and by improving grading options. We also want to explore options for finger-jointing and gluing, and mixing species within laminated wood products. Hopefully we can win some joint funding to explore these topics!
Supported by funding from the British Council’s Going Global Partnerships programme. Going Global Partnerships supports universities, colleges and wider education stakeholders around the world to work together towards stronger, equitable, inclusive, more internationally connected higher education, science and TVET.
