Grant: Engage Grants Program

The forestry industry is facing many economic challenges today. Therefore, the diversification of forestproducts and the development of second and third wood transformation as well as value-added products areneeded. Our partner Tembec, a manufacturer of forest products, produces different types of resins including abio-resin. One of its objectives is to find markets for the resins.A relatively new product, called wood scrimber, is a wood composite made of fiber mat and resin. It hassuperior physical and mechanical properties compared to those of the original wood lumber and otherwood-based composites. It is developed in China using Chinese species. If it can be fabricated using some ofthe low quality and small diameter North American woods, it would be possible to produce high qualityvalue-added wood products with many potential applications. However, wood scrimber requires special resins.If the resins of Tembec can be used for this purpose, underused Quebec and Canadian forest products will bevalorized and the company will have new market opportunities.The objective of the project is to develop a new simple and rapid method to select resins and determine thecuring conditions for a given wood so that good quality wood scrimber could be produced. The characterizationof scrimber properties will be carried out, and these will be correlated with the wood and resin properties aswell as with the curing conditions.UQAC has the competence and the facilities to carry out this project. This will also open the way for aneventual collaboration between UQAC, Tembec, and another industry (to be identified), which will be the enduser of the product with the objective of further developing wood scrimber and its commercialization. Theproject will also contribute to the training of highly qualified personnel.