The issues of tomorrow

Innovations in the field of timber-processing. Josef Putzhammer and Christian Nöhammer are responsible for Research and Development at ISOCELL. ISOCELL’s two technical experts explain what innovations are already being used in the wood construction market and why the focus has recently been on waterproofing the base of a building.

Recently there’s been a kind of revolution in roof sheeting technology. Why?
Christian Nöhammer: The products on the market differ greatly in terms of quality. We’ve converted the films intended for carrying high loads from microporous functional membranes to monolithic functional membranes. This new technology makes it possible to manufacture particularly durable membranes.

Josef Putzhammer: Protecting the building from rain is an essential element of construction. If no roofing felt is used, damage to the building and costly repairs can result. Failing to use it would therefore be false economy. High-quality products that have been tried and tested in the field should always be used. In recent years, an increased awareness of this has also been noticeable in the market. ISOCELL welcomes this and has the technology to create exceptionally high-quality products for different applications.

What other innovations are being worked on?
Putzhammer: A very exciting research project is currently under way in Germany, and ISCOCELL is a part of this project. The aim of the project is to assess the fire resistance of wooden panels with biogenous insulants through carrying out calculations. Until now concrete and masonry construction has had the advantage, because there is no need to check each of the individual components. Fire resistance can therefore be calculated using simple formulae.

Nöhammer: It costs a lot to check the structure of a particular component. And in wood construction there are so many different products and possible combinations, meaning that many different superstructures can be built.

So the point of projects such as this is to prove that wood construction is in no way inferior to the competition in terms of re safety?
Nöhammer: Precisely. The project will show that the fire safety of wood construction and concrete and masonry construction is on a par. Fire safety is a big challenge for multi-storey wood constructions. Several projects have already shown, however, that it is possible to build fire-safe constructions of this type successfully.

You can read the whole interview in The Isoceller 03

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