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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - TEEWood (Technologically Enhanced European Wood for Substituting Endangered Tropical Woods)

Teaser

Summary

Tropical woods are highly esteemed for making musical instruments, owed to their excellent acoustic properties, high hardness, resistance to moisture and their distinct colour. Furthermore, these wood species are also highly suitable and widely used for making high quality cues for billiard sports. However, they suffer from overexploitation, which has already led to severe negative consequences, be it ecologically, economically, politically or societally.

In order to counteract the extinction of tropical forest and to preserve botanical biodiversity, more than 180 countries have increased their efforts to fight against the illegal logging and trade of endangered tropical wood species, signing the multilateral treaty of CITES. Consequently, trade of and travelling with accordant musical instruments and sports equipment is being strictly controlled and prosecuted in the absence of a legality proof.

The increasing scarcity of the natural raw material and unavailability of an adequate alternative material has generated an exceptionally high business opportunity for a novel wood-based material.

At Swiss Wood Solutions AG (SWS), we have developed a technology augmented wood material made of European wood species from certified sustainable forests. The product, termed Sonowood, features similar or even better physical properties than the natural tropical woods. Sonowood represents a real substitute material for the endangered species. First prototypes of musical instruments and instrument parts out of and with Sonowood have been manufactured by renowned manufacturers. The instruments have been tested extensively by professional musicians, who were impressed by the quality of the innovative material.

The objective of the Project TEEWood is to upscale the existing and validated production process of Sonowood in terms of product dimensions (size) as well as overall capacity. This upscale allows SWS to enter the markets of larger stringed instruments (guitars, cellos), percussions (marimbas, xylophones) and cue sports. Furthermore, a comprehensive market analysis for application fields and intensive dissemination and exploitation activities are other important project objectives.

Work performed

The technical efforts focused on the optimisation of the process parameters for upscaling. This includes the determination of optimum impregnation parameters (impregnation time, vacuum/pressure cycle), climatisation parameters (temperature, relative humidity, time) and compression parameters (temperature, pressure, time). Furthermore, the wood has been validated for different application areas by executing internal quality tests in terms of density, Brinell hardness, sound-propagation velocity, sound damping and frequency characteristics and dimensional stability. The validation further included material performance test at external partners in terms of workability, sound quality and aesthetical appearance.

The business development and marketing efforts focused on the certification of the material performance for the stringed instruments by renowned manufacturers and both amateur and professional musicians. In addition, a market analysis of European and global markets of the music industry has been carried out.

Final results

The key result expected from the TEEWood project is to specify parameters for the upscale process of Sonowood production, relating to the process steps of chemical modification, climatisation and hygro-thermal densification. With the product obtained from the optimised production, SWS is expected to enter the markets of larger stringed musical instruments and the market of cue sports.

The TEEWood project has already had impacts in various aspects. Cultural heritage-wise, it provides the traditional instrument manufacturing with a competitive material, which is free from any legal restrictions. Similarly, it provides a greatly increase customer value since it facilitates the proof of legality for manufacturers and individual musicians.

Assumed that the production of Sonowood can be expanded and more material becomes available, additional potential impacts are projected. Economically, new jobs could be created and existing ones saved by helping solve the raw material scarcity. Environmentally, the development of Sonowood is projected to help save tropical forests and botanical biodiversity, to enhance sustainable forestry and to counteract secondary consequences such as global climate change.

In terms of progress beyond the state of the art, the TEEWood project will enable domestic European wood species to enter application fields, which were not feasible yet owed to inferior mechanical and physical properties of these wood species in comparison to the noble tropical wood species. By technologically enhancing the European wood species, a substantial progress beyond the current state of the art for these wood species is expected.