The hot pressing of wood products and their modification with various substances have been researched extensively and for a long time around the world. In particular, the results achievable with substances, press drying and conventional heat treatment have been in industrial production for decades. The production of laminate and sandwich products, which have taken the most market share from wood products, has long used hot-pressing technology comparable to Solidiwood.
YHTEISHYVÄ magazine 10/98: “Laminate is growing in popularity for floors: Various heat treatments can turn domestic wood into an even better flooring material. Its movement almost ceases, its hardness increases and its water absorption decreases. Research Professor Pertti Viitaniemi of VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland refers to experiments in the early 1990s in which pressure and heat were used to make pine as hard as oak. No industrial user has been found for the method, but Viitaniemi believes that hot pressing would have good commercial prospects.”
Raute Oyj in 1998 to Ilvolankosken Puu Ky: “The method can increase the hardness of wood, reduce its movement, improve its decay resistance and colour the wood. Raute Wood has held discussions with Professor Pertti Viitaniemi of VTT for about five years.”
All of the above, each in its own way, verify that Solidiwood process technology works. Bringing the technology into use will enable the industrial exploitation of the results of numerous studies on the modification of wood products.