Objective:

1. To improve the gluability of key Australian commercial timbers for glulam applications, through increased understanding of the effects of manufacturing processes and wood micro-structure using 3-D imaging.

Alignment within M3D Innovation:

1. Aligned with the forest products theme of the M3D Centre.
2. Some Australian high density timbers are very problematic to glue. This is limiting major commercialization and market opportunities for the industry. Innovative technologies being adopted within the M3D Centre could lead to solutions that will have major economic benefits for the Australian forest products industry.

Approach:

1. To study the relationships between wood permeability and wood gluability using Micro-CT and other methods.
2. To investigate the influence of different manufacturing approaches on the wettability, permeability and gluability in southern pine, spotted gum and Darwin stringybark.
3. Use Micro-CT and other visualization methods to understand how different manufacturing processes influence wood microstructure, permeability and the resultant gluability; and to investigate the causes of adhesive bond failure.

Key Milestones:

1. Complete experiments to investigate the impact of different industrial drying conditions and machining pre-treatments on the permeability, wettability and gluability of important Australian commercial timbers.
2. Complete an examination of wood adhesive bonds using Micro-CT: influence of various pre-gluing board treatments for important Australian commercial timbers.
3. Undertake time-lapse Micro-CT imaging to capture the fracture and failure process so we can see how various interventions influence glue bonding.
4. Examine the impact on adhesive bond performance with modifications to the surface tension of the adhesive using surfactants.