Summary
• Lignia is produced by aqueous amino impregnation.
• It is being used for worktops, flooring, hybrid windows and veneer.
• An exterior xd range has just launched.
• Manufacturer Fibre7 is looking at setting up European production facilities.

It’s been a long journey persuading timber end users to take the leap of faith and try modified timber, according to Paul Duncan.

But, while the UK managing director of Lignia modified radiata pine producer Fibre7 says it’s been a demanding process, involving intensive work with exacting manufacturers to perfect their use of the material, he now believes the market has reached a tipping point. The groundwork of modified wood specialists is paying off and the sector is on an upward trajectory. Awareness and demand are rising, and applications increasing – with Fibre7 itself unveiling a raft of new ones for Lignia.

“Having worked with manufacturers to prove its potential, their products are now demonstrating its performance to the wider market,” said Mr Duncan. “Innovative timber is being matched with innovative design and production and we’re now seeing Lignia products in showrooms worldwide.”

Lignia is currently based exclusively on New Zealand radiata pine and produced at a plant in the country, with capacity of over 1,000m³ a month. Mr Duncan won’t disclose precise details of the modifying process, but says it impregnates the wood cells with an aqueous amino compound, which is then catalysed and hardened during drying, with both processes undertaken in conventional equipment.

The end product, said Mr Duncan, is a timber that can equal some of the heaviest weight tropical species in density and hardness, weighing in at 700-1,100kg/m³, depending on processing.

Tropical alternative

From the outset, Lignia has been marketed as a green and plentiful alternative to tropical species that are environmentally questionable, or restricted in availability.

“New Zealand is currently producing 4.5 million m³ of radiata a year,” said Mr Duncan. “With that sort of volume – all plantation stock and FSC-certified – customers know demand won’t outstrip supply.”

But, he insists that, as they become more widely discovered, Lignia’s other sales hooks are assuming equal importance. It’s no longer “just about substituting other timber species, but discovering new opportunities for design and performance”. For one thing, it can be uniformly through-dyed in the densification process.

“Effectively we can tune timber to the needs of designers or manufacturers, who previously had to work around feedstock at hand,” he said.

The modified timber can also be supplied in lengths either unavailable in tropical hardwoods, or expensive in temperates.

“We’re supplying boards up to 50mm thick and 6m long,” said Mr Duncan. “Virtually defect-free feedstock also means staves in most finished products up to 5.5m.”

Worktops

TTJ looked at the way Fibre7 works with manufacturers in an article last year on Danish worktop maker Spekva, supplier to ‘elite’ kitchen specialists. Spekva found customers liked not just its green appeal, but also its look, and “appliance of science” to a natural material. The fact that its Lignia worktops are cheaper than most other full length stave products gave it another edge. Subsequently, Spekva has extended its modified range with a new sand-blasted “riverwash” finish and predicts the timber could soon account for almost a third of output.

Following this success, Lignia worktops have also now passed technical tests with German worktop producers. Shortly it will also announce a partner to provide a slab offer; full-stave worktops in fixed sizes for installation on site or fabrication by specialist manufacturers.

Flooring is in Fibre7’s sights as well. In the UK, Fintrim of Boston is producing oiled single-faced 200mm-wide boards, and a German producer, a white-oiled 300mm variant. The latter offers defect-free lengths up to 6m.

In a key strategic move, Fibre7 is venturing into veneer too, delivering Lignia flitches from New Zealand to leading German specialist Hobb for edge gluing into sheets.

“Lignia flitch is supplied from 0.6mm to 1.5mm thick in a 100mm-wide flitch with a mix of flat and quarter sawn grain, and 40mm wide in all quarter sawn,” said Mr Duncan. “It’s being considered by door and furniture makers and we see it as a real catalyst for wider use.”

Fibre7 is hoping to achieve similar success in a collaborative project with UK timber and aluminium hybrid window and curtain wall company Senior Architectural Systems.

Exterior application

But the biggest recent breakthrough is Lignia xd, a specific new exterior application version produced through further development of the modification compound.

“We’ve shown untreated Lignia itself can achieve EN113 durability class 1, but xd is even better suited for outdoors,” said Mr Duncan. “Prototype Lignia xd window scantlings have been produced by German building components specialist Holz Schiller and we’ve now signed an agreement to supply them with both xd and Lignia. We also expect to announce an agreement on xd decking with another German company.”

Like other modified producers, Fibre7 is also looking at possibilities for establishing densification facilities elsewhere, either in partnership or wholly owned, using locally available timber.

“We’ve been evaluating Spanish and German species for processing and talked to forest product groups and manufacturers about the potential of a plant here,” said Mr Duncan.

At the same time, he added, Fibre7 is seeing demand recovering in Japan and growing interest in the US, Canada, Australia and emerging Asian economies.

“Last year we had our best year and the journey ahead is now looking exciting,” he said.