Oak System

The project represents a reversal of previous thinking and production processes and ties in with the traditional approach of carpentry, shipbuilding and wainwrighting. An exemplary process is being developed, which will convert previously low-grade hardwood (oak) into a high-quality, long-term structural use. This results in a new product line for raw wood assortments that have been problematic in marketing up to now. Here, a long-term CO₂ fixation is achieved, which is additionally supplemented by a considerable avoidance of greenhouse gases by dispensing with technical drying and energy-intensive sawmill processes. The process chain developed on the example of oak weak wood can also be transferred to other weak wood assortments.

The project directly pursues the objectives of the priority area "Increasing wood product storage and CO₂ reduction and substitution by wood products". In the research project, an engineered timber construction method for wet shoring is to be developed, which uses hitherto low-value weak oak wood for higher-value, structural purposes. In this way, the weak oak wood, which is mostly used as firewood for energy purposes, can be put to a desired, multi-stage cascade use.

The new planning concept to be developed is based on the use of weak hardwood with a low processing depth through few process steps in the sawmill and the renunciation of technical drying as raw material for the innovative structural design.

The selected weak oak wood is used to determine material parameters for fresh wood (wood moisture content, bulk density, modulus of elasticity, strengths) that have not been extensively investigated to date but are necessary for structural design and statics. These characteristic values form the necessary data basis for a "WALD" database to be created for characterizing the "material supply" in the forest. The material characteristics will then be used for a structural analysis of the prototype that can be calculated by engineers and will provide an initial basis for future load-bearing structures to be built according to standards from such assortments (weak oak wood or weak hardwood).

To the wood competence center