BRE has wide ranging capabilities for timber-related research, consultancy and testing of wood-based products and composites. This covers the whole wood chain from the forest to the end products and their ultimate recycling or reuse.
While BRE Timber is a relatively small team of 15 consultants, scientists and engineers, the scope of its activities is greatly increased through close working relationships with the rest of BRE’s 600 staff. These include experts in almost every major aspect of construction and the built environment, and give BRE Timber access to the latest expertise in, for example, modern methods of construction, fire prevention, sustainability and environmental profiling. BRE Timber also has close links with BRE’s centres in Scotland, Wales and north-east England.
“Another key factor in BRE Timber’s research and testing capabilities is the range of facilities at our disposal,” said the team’s director Ed Suttie. “These include kilns, field exposure sites, composites production line, racking rigs, stress grading machines, an incising facility and even a sawmill. With these we can work with our clients to seek practical solutions.”
BRE Timber projects range from the evaluation of newly available species and sources, to the structural performance, protection and behaviour of modern composite products. The team provides advice and consultancy services to industry, government, the Forestry Commission and the EC, and is active in the shaping of legislation, codes and standards. It supports and advises small SMEs through to large international enterprises.
The Forestry Commission and Scottish Enterprise have recently commissioned BRE Timber to work on five projects aimed at increasing the opportunity and profitability of the UK timber processing industry. The focus is on approaches to manufacturing innovative engineered wood products and adding value to UK grown timber.
The new projects, which will run concurrently, involve two linked projects on whether engineered wood products can be manufactured from Scots pine falling boards – the boards cut from the outer edges of the log – and on how machine grade settings can be raised for UK-grown Scots pine. A third project will develop BRE’s innovative technique for making better use of UK-grown small diameter hardwood stems by re-engineering them into ‘inside out’ beams. The fourth project aims to develop UK-grown timber for industrial applications including piles and bridges and the fifth is the production of a manual on adding value to UK timber.
There are likely to be both economic and environmental benefits from the work on thinnings and small dimension round timber, as timber from these sources is frequently considered to have no value.
“We recently completed a study for the Forestry Commission, which identified that Scots pine from the Grampian and Cairngorm regions has the potential for far more applications than previously thought,’ said Chris Holland, senior consultant in Timber Technology at BRE. “The work we are now starting will build on this by looking at how the UK timber industry can make the most of UK-grown trees.”
The competitive environment for the proposed end products will be closely examined and there will be a rigorous evaluation of the technologies for producing them. Project outputs are expected in 2007, though regular updates enable the flow of information sooner.
