Wood Laboratory

Wood is Switzerland’s only bio-based, renewable material resource. It is produced in local forests and characterised as CO2 neutral over the whole life cycle.

A multifunctional resource, wood is used as material, energy resource, and feedstock for chemicals and pharmaceutics. Due to its structural and chemical composition and the high natural variability in its properties, wood has complex material characteristics which need to be explored and taken into account to ensure reliable wood based products and processes.

The Wood Laboratory combines scientific and engineering methods to develop new knowledge and innovative concepts for an optimised performance of structural timber, engineered wood products and wood based composites.

• Cellulose / Nanocomposites
• Wood- / Surface Technology
• Multiscale Modeling
• Timber Engineering / Reliability
• Wood Protection / Biotechnology

Functionalisation of Wood

• Cellulose nanocomposites
• Modification technologies
  - Fungal treatment
  - Heat treatment
  - Surface modification treatment

Reliability and Performance of Wood Components and Timber Structures

• Safety
• Fitness for use
• Durability
• Environmental aspects

Research

Planing and execution of research projects with national and international partners from academia and industry, funded by:

• U-FRP‘s
• SNF
• COST
• CTI
• BAFU
• Industry
• Foundations

Services

• Accredited test centre for wood and wood composites (STS 163) according to SN EN ISO/IEC 17025
• Consulting, Expert’s reports, damage analysis

Knowledge transfer

• University teaching at
  – ETH Zürich and FH Zürich
  – University Freiburg (G)
  – TU Graz (A)
• Supervision and coaching of PhD, BSc and MSc studies
• Scientific publications
• Membership in national (SIA) and international (CEN) standard committees

Contact: Klaus Richter

Adresses:

• Empa, Wood Laboratory
  Ueberlandstrasse 129
  CH-8600 Duebendorf
  Phone +41 44 823 55 11
  F +41 44 823 40 07
  wood@empa.ch
  
• EMPA, Wood Protection / Biotechnology
  Lerchenfeldstr. 5
  CH-9014 St. Gallen
  Phone +41 71 274 74 74
  F +41 71 274 76 94
  wood@empa.ch