Advanced Engineered Wood-Material Concepts

The variety of wood-based products is huge; some are produced and marketed in large volumes while others are for a very specific use and therefore also often only produced in small volumes. This chapter introduces a group of new materials, existing mainly only in laboratories or in production at pilot scale. These materials often go under the name bioinspired materials and smart wood-based materials. The second part of the chapter presents engineered wood products (EWPs) with other or additional functions than only the load-bearing capacity related not only to properties such as acoustic, heat transfer, light-weight, and extraordinary shape stability, but also to functions such as hybrid functions, improved possibility to form to a given shape, installation solutions, and esthetic and tactile performance. These materials are already on the market since many years and are in this chapter briefly introduced.