From the lab to commercial reality with biobased adhesives for wood

Abstract

Many technologies can be demonstrated in the laboratory to give products that meet performance standards, but there are many hurdles to overcome before these products are commercially viable. Demonstrating performance under simulated commercial processes conditions is the first key step to be accomplished through using appropriate adhesive application, furnish selection, and bonding conditions. Then, after evaluation of economic feasibility, comes the need to scale up adhesive production on a consistent basis. With this accomplished, the adhesive needs to be applied and bonded in a commercial scale trial in a customers’ plant. If the adhesive passes all these steps, then comes all the logistic, plant modification and economic factors along with the customer’s real desire for taking on the risk of change. It is always harder to do a technology push than a market pull and the technology needs to match the window of opportunity for consumer demands.

Citation

Birkeland, Michael J.; Frihart, Charles R. 2016. From the lab to commercial reality with biobased adhesives for wood. In: World Conference on Timber Engineering, WCTE 2016. 22-25 August 2016, Vienna, Austria. 8 pp.