Wood Biology and Wood Products

WinFur


Suitability of furfurylated wood for high quality window frame production



The project WinFur investigated the suitability of furfurylated wood for the production of high quality windows.
As part of the project, the following six species of wood were modified by the project partner Kebony ASA: Beech (Fagus sylvatica L.), Ash (Fraxinus excelsior), Birch (Betula pendula), Southern Yellow pine, Radiata pine (Pinus radiata D. Don) and Common pine (Pinus sylvestris L.).
After furfurylation, it was found that birch and common pine were not uniformly modified. The further investigations in the project were therefore continued on the remaining four types of wood.
It has been shown that both dimensional stability and durability have been significantly improved by the furfurylation process compared to untreated wood species. Furfurfylation lead to reduced cracking presumably leads to an extension of the maintenance intervals of wooden window frames.
A coating of the material is possible, although not all coating systems gave satisfactory results on all types of wood examined. It is therefore planned that the manufacturer (Kebony ASA) will make recommendations for coating systems.
The bonding of the material under industrial conditions by the company NOKA Holzverarbeitung was possible. However, the results also showed that further investigations are needed in order to gain sound knowledge in this area. Following the WinFur project, the company Kebony ASA decided to investigate the bonding of furfurylated material in cooperation with the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. The aim of this study is to make recommendations for adhesive systems and their processing instructions.
The final investigations of the prototypes showed that all investigated modified wood species are suitable for window construction.
A detailed description of all results generated in the project can be found in the project report. This report can be obtained from the Department of Wood Biology and Wood Products at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen.