Second generation Wood Fibre Composites (Samfinansiering fra VM og PROSBIO)

Wood fibre composites represents a completely new and innovative class of materials that are currently generating interest in Europe. These materials could be generated by intimate mixing of plastic and high pulp fibres to produce materials that can be pr ocessed like plastic but have the best features of both plastic and wood. They could potentially replace plastic or wood products in various applications due to new and/or improved properties and are believed to be easily recycled after use. This project will focus on specific Nordic natural fibre resources which are lacking high-value applications, like pine forest, waste wood from sawmills and other low utilized types of wood. Much effort will be put on developing a fundamenetal understanding of and te chnically feasible solutions regarding wood fibre defibration, fibre engineering, fibre handling and feeding into compounding and processing equippment. Innovative demonstrator products will be genrated and tested/compared to materials generated by more c onventional technologies. This project will be a co-operation between SINTEF/PFI and forest owners, natural fibre producers, equippment suppliers, suppliers of processing aids, plastic- and composite converters and end-users. In addition this project se eks to apply for a EUREKA status together with a Swedish research project (EcoComp) financed by VINNOVA and coordinated by Trätek. Contact is established and work is in progress to initiate this cooperation.