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Thermoplastic moulding of wood-polymer composites (WPC): a review and research proposal on thermo-physical and geometric design options using hot-pressing

  • Review Article
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Abstract

Wood-plastic composites (WPC) can incorporate up to 80% wood fibres, which reduces the use of scarce oil resources for plastic production. To increase the interest of industrial deciders in applying WPCs in the building sector, for example in façades, application-oriented basic research on thermoplastic shaping after hot-pressing of already produced sheets is necessary. This review paper reports on a comprehensive analysis of the current state of research on basic temperature-related WPC properties such as thermal conductivity, heat storage capacity and thermal expansion. In addition, it discusses geometric material specifications, which play a role when WPC sheets become thermoformed and sculptured for three-dimensional façade applications. It is demonstrated that WPCs offer interesting potential to positively regulate the interior climate of a building, and that other components, such as phase change materials (PCM), can be effectively combined with this biobased composite. In terms of geometric design options there is still a lack of research about minimum bending radii and potential shape memory effects of WPCs after re-heating and cooling. Finally, this paper provides recommendations on which experimental studies are necessary to close these research gaps and which hypotheses are to be tested. With the knowledge to be generated, a successful development of three-dimensional WPC products in industrial mass production becomes feasible.

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The raw/processed data required to reproduce these findings cannot be shared at this time as the data also forms part of an ongoing study.

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Acknowledgements

The author gratefully acknowledges the collaborative work with Prof. Dr. Rosemarie Wagner, Institute of Architecture at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), where he conducts further research in the topics based on this review paper. The author also acknowledges the work of the COST ACTION CA 16114 “RESTORE” funded by the European Commission, where he researches biobased plastic composite materials labelled as Compolytics (composite polymer and policy analytics) research.

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This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

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  1. Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University Mosbach, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Neckarburkener Straße 2-4, 74821, Mosbach, Germany

    Daniel Friedrich

  2. Compolytics Research, Schwanheimer Straße 69, 74867, Neunkirchen, Germany

    Daniel Friedrich

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The corresponding author contributed to the design and implementation of the research, to the analysis of the results and to the writing of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Daniel Friedrich.

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Friedrich, D. Thermoplastic moulding of wood-polymer composites (WPC): a review and research proposal on thermo-physical and geometric design options using hot-pressing. Eur. J. Wood Prod. 80, 7–21 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00107-021-01767-2

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