LIGNA 2019, the world’s largest fair for the wood industry, will be held in Hannover, Germany between May 27 and 31, 2019 and UDT/EST will present some of its technological developments and biobased products in a stand next to the companies Neumann S.A. and Piso Caminante, Ingeniería y Desarrollo Tecnológico Ltda.

Hydrophobic emulsions for boards, natural adhesives, insulating materials from eucalyptus bark fibers, reinforcing additives based on nanocellulose, a new use of sawdust to incorporate it into plastic products, wood treated easily and quickly to improve its appearance, are the technological products and solutions that UDT/EST will bring to the Ligna Fair in Germany at the end of May.

This fair, the most important in the world of the forest and wood industry, expects more than 93,000 visitors and will have 1,500 exhibitors from more than 50 countries that will gather in the Hannover Exhibition Center that has more than 130,000 square meters. Processes, products, applications and state-of-the-art technology will be exhibited for wood-based industries.

The Chilean stand, A33, will be presented in Hall 25 and includes the participation of the Neumann manufacturing company, specialist in drying plants and thermal equipment; Piso Caminante company, engineering and development in transport with self-discharge and feeding accumulators; and UDT/EST that will show its offer of technological products and solutions for the transformation of by-products from the forest and wood activity into value products. Funding was obtained from Corfo and ProChile to support the participation of Chilean companies.

UDT/EST Innovations

UDT/EST technological products and solutions are developed by multidisciplinary teams of researchers, technicians and engineers in the research lines related to the transformation of biomass, valorization of by-products from the forest industry and development of eco-friendly additives for products such as boards or sawn wood.

Heat treated wood: Easy and fast to produce

This kind of wood has beautiful appearance and different shades, according to the intensity of the applied treatment, and it is more resistant to the attack of pathogens and with greater dimensional stability than the wood without treatment. Our process is based on the immersion of wood in a hot wax bath at temperatures between 180 and 220°C and with immersion time between 30 and 240 min. The characteristics of the waxes allow that they do not enter the wood nor confer odor.

Adhesives based on tannins: From nature to your home

Our tannins are obtained from the radiata pine bark, a by-product that is mass generated in sawmills of Chile. We have a very effective proprietary extraction process, which can operate at low capacities and requires a moderate investment. We have formulations for indoor and outdoor boards.

Sawdust for plastic injection: Flowing wood

Sawdust and wood dust are residual products that are generated in a massive way, which we value and incorporate into a new type of pellet with up to 80% sawdust or wood dust that can be fed directly to plastic injectors and distributed homogeneously in polyolefins (polyethylene or polypropylene). In this way, it is possible to generate injected plastic products with 10 and 25% of wood, decreasing the cost of raw materials and differentiating the production.

Hydrophobic emulsions: Made of residual plastics

Agglomerated boards, but also many cartons and paper containers, require emulsions of paraffin waxes to increase their resistance to water. Our hydrophobicizing agents do not come from oil, natural gas or coal, but from residual plastics. We develop our own and highly efficient production technology to transform residual plastic into paraffin waxes.

Fiber insulation materials: A new application of eucalyptus bark.

The species Eucalyptus globulus and nitens are planted extensively in Chile and their bark has no mass uses. We know how to use their fibers and transform them into insulating materials, both rigid and flexible, which can replace glass wool or expanded polystyrene (plumavit), among others.

Nanocellulose reinforcement: Save adhesives on your panels

We develop a new generation of adhesive reinforcing additives based on nanocellulose, which, unlike traditional nanocellulose, can easily be dispersed in different types of materials, for example the urea-formaldehyde adhesive. Our results indicate that the addition of 1% nanocellulose allows a saving of up to 20% of urea-formaldehyde.

More information in: www.ligna.de/home

You can review the UDT/EST products in: https://www.ligna.de/exhibitor/est-udt/N1414056