Press release innovation wood (iwood), 13.2.2003

innovation wood (iwood) receives Thursday 13 february 2003 at the Technopark Zürich the Swiss Technology Award 2003.

Swiss Technology Award
Thanks to the Swiss Technology award iwood will participate at the worlds biggest industry fair, the Hannover Messe 2003, which takes place from 7 to 12 April 2003 in Hannover.

iwood-boards - The new wood based panels
innovation wood (iwood)
CH - 6340 Baar

At least 200 million meters of cubic saw dust and wood flour per year are to be obtained by sawing industrial rough timber. So far these by-products could only be used for process heat. As a raw material for the paper industry or for wood based panels like chipboards the fibers of saw dust and wood flour are missing the needed strength.

The swiss startup company innovation wood (iwood for short) is founded on the idea of developing a marketable, new, biotechnological process for the production of environmentally friendly and affordable panels for the furniture and building industries. Panels and mouldings are produced from sawdust and wood flour through a process where microorganisms (mainly yeast) are used to release the wood starch in the wood and convert it into a foamed wood paste comparable to bread dough. The wood paste is then dried, resulting in a hard material (like crackers or crispbread) with properties comparable to chipboard and similar products.

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An iwood-panel as a material weighs half as much as current conventional materials (250 - 300 kg/m³) and can easily be grinded, sawed, planed, drilled, screwed and glued with common tools. The iwood panel is an engineered wood product for many uses in the furniture and the wood building industry, easily to work with, porous, with good mechanical properties and lightweight, cheap and ecological in production and use, made of saw dust and wood flour, the biggest amount of wasteproducts in the wood industry. The company innovation wood received so far the W.A. de Vigier Foundation Award 2002 and the Wall Street Journal Europe Innovation Award 2002 as Runner-Up.

Contact
Christoph Affentranger
innovation wood (iwood)
Bahnhofstrasse 9a
CH - 6340 Baar
p ++41 (0)41 760 90 80
f ++41 (0)41 760 90 81
info@iwood.ch
www.iwood.ch

Support and Awards
- Swiss Fund for Forest and Timber Research, a Fund within BUWAL: Basic research, technical values
- W. A. de Vigier Foundation Award 2002
- Wall Street Journal Europe Innovation Award 2002
- Federal Commission for Technology and Innovation: CTI-Research project. Coaching supported by the CTI Startup! network

Research Partnerships of innovation wood (iwood)
- SH Holz Biel, Swiss School of Engineering for the Wood Industry SWOOD
- ETH Zürich, Food Science Institute of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
- FA Wädenswil, Research Center Wädenswil

Partners of innovation wood (iwood)
- BSZ Foundation, Seewen SZ, Switzerland
- Topakustik: n'H Akustik + Design AG, Lungern, Switzerland

End of press release

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