Brian Kehoe

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• Brian Kehoe
• Manager
• Wicklow Rural Partnership
• Heat treatment of timber

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Partners

• Wicklow Rural Partnership, Co. Wicklow, Ireland.
• Wicklow is located on the East Coast of Ireland
  beside the city of Dublin. Population is 115,000.
  Wicklow has the highest percentage of land
  planted with forestry in Ireland at 20.
  Forestry and related industries comprise an
  important part of the local economy.
• Suupohja Development Association, Osthrobothnia,
  Finland.
• Suupohja is located in the region of Southern
  Ostrobothnia in West Finland. Population of
  Suupohja is c.31,000. (Southern Ostrobothnia
  population is 230,000). Suupohja and South
  Ostrobothnia region is one of the leading
  furniture making regions in Finland.

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Project Origins

• Telework project under the Leader 2 Programme
  which both Suupohja Development Association and
  Wicklow Rural Partnership Ltd and two LAG groups
  from Italy were partners.
• During meetings held in Ireland and Finland in
  2001 both partners decided that given the local
  economic profile of the two areas the timber
  sector would be the common sector around which to
  develop a project.
• Other sectors such as tourism, food and cultural
  exchange were also agreed as possible areas for
  future co-operation e.g. marketing local food
  products.

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Objectives

• Develop projects between both countries in the
  areas of timber/furniture, tourism, food and
  cultural exchange.
• Timber/Furniture
• Investigate new technologies, i.e. heat treatment
  to add value to Irish softwoods and in particular
  Sitka spruce.
• Reduce the use of chemicals in timber
  preservative treatment.
• Create business opportunities between Finnish and
  Irish companies working in timber/furniture
  industry.

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Objectives

• Specific Irish Objectives
• To examine how Irish Sitka spruce could be
  upgraded by a heat-treatment process therefore
  adding value to the timber and extending its
  usage into a range of different products.
• Reduce the use of chemicals in preservative
  treatment (timber production and processing).
  This heat treatment process also preserves the
  timber.

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Project background

• Sitka spruce is the predominant species used in
  Irish forestry. 60 of the forest estate in
  Ireland is Sitka spruce
• The Irish forest industry currently uses Sitka
  spruce for a variety of end uses including
  building timber, fencing material (stakes) and
  pallet/particleboard manufacture i.e. lower
  value usage.
• The use of chemicals in Irish timber production
  in particular copper-chrome-arsenic (CCA) to
  treat outdoor timber (stakes, decking) creates
  environmental issues and this product is now
  prohibited.

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Heat treatment process

• Heat treatment is a process where wood is heated
  in an oven type kiln (20m3 capacity) to
  temperatures ranging from 190C - 250C depending
  on the type of product required. The higher the
  temperature selected the darker the wood colour
  will be.
• The effect of this process is two fold
• (1) It reduces the moisture content to less than
  3 making it very stable and resistant to fungal
  and insect attack.
• (2) It darkens the colour of the wood throughout
  making it very decorative.

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Potential Uses

• Joinery windows, external and internal doors
  and doorframes, skirting boards, architraves
• External and Internal Cladding
• Garden Furniture Decking
• Sauna/Leisure Centres/Swimming Pools
• Heat treated timber can act as a substitute for
  the following timbers Western Red Cedar (used
  for external cladding) Iroko and a range of
  hardwoods, Red deal, White deal and Douglas Fir.
  

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Action Plan

• Consultation with a range of public agencies e.g.
  
• - Coillte (The Irish Forestry Board)
• - Co-ford (National Council for Forest Research
  Development)
• - Enterprise Ireland (Agency for the development
  of Irish industry)
• Securing commercial partners by selling the
  concept of heat treatment to local timber
  sawmills and furniture/product manufacturers.
• Sourcing of 20cm3 of Irish Sitka spruce to be
  treated.
• Shipping of timber to Finland for heat treatment
  at a number of different temperatures at TEAK
  Research Centre.

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Action Plan

• Testing of the timber through various machining
  and strength tests to ascertain its suitability.
  
• Manufacture of a range of indoor and outdoor
  products (i.e. garden furniture, a coffee table
  and a cabinet door) from this timber to show the
  potential uses for heat treated Irish timber.
• Manufacture of furniture products by Irish
  furniture manufacturers
• Development of operational costings for an Irish
  heat treatment facility.

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Action Plan

• Identifying a sawmill to develop a heat treatment
  facility.
• Review of project based on results and feedback
  from agencies and furniture manufacturers and
  timber sawmills e.g. product review.

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Products Manufactured
External gate manufactured in Ireland
Garden furniture manufactured in Finland
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Results

• We have established conclusively that properly
  graded heat treated Irish Sitka spruce is
  suitable for a wide range of products e.g.
  Joinery products, external doors, external and
  internal cladding, garden furniture decking.
•  Due to the cost of processing from round log to
  machining stage, the most lucrative end use would
  be in the manufacture of external gates, external
  doors and external cladding.
• Price of imported hardwoods determines the end
  use of timber. External cladding, which is
  normally manufactured from Western Red Cedar, is
  therefore likely to be the most viable product.

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Results

• Scale of the Irish timber industry is relatively
  small, it is therefore difficult to get a company
  to invest in a heat treatment plant.
• Difficult for Irish sawmills to economically
  grade the material to the quality needed for heat
  treatment.
• Higher incidence of knots in Irish Sitka Spruce,
  it therefore needs to be properly graded.
• Other species grown in Ireland that would benefit
  from heat treatment e.g. alder, poplar, birch.
  These species have been successfully treated in
  Finland

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Lessons learned

• 1. Technical difficulties
• Timber
• - Incidence of knots in Irish Sitka Spruce
• - Grading of the timber
•  Finding suitable Commercial Partners willing to
  invest in heat treatment.
•  Economic viability of the project.

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Lessons learned

• 2. Project Management difficulties
• Dedicating resources (time and money)to the
  project
• Securing match funding
• Long lead in time
• Lack of technical expertise

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Future Developments

• Work with new partners
• (a)    Sawmills
• (b)    Manufacturer new partner, Griffner
  Coillte
• Focus on single product, further heat treatment
  of Irish Sitka Spruce to be used in the
  manufacture of external cladding.

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External Cladding on a house in Wicklow
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Future Developments

• Revisit the economics/viability of the project.
• Dissemination of information.
• Further development of new projects in the areas
  of tourism, food and cultural exchange

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Contact Details

• Wicklow Rural Partnership
• www.wickowleader.ie
• Suupohja Development Association
• www.suupohjankehittamisyhdistys.fi