The construction industry is challenged in many ways: meeting the housing demands of increasing urban populations; reducing CO2 emissions; making no compromises on safety, strength and durability. Engineered wood helps to reconcile these goals. bg电子娱乐场's Adhesive Technologies business offers the industry advanced technologies to transform wood into sustainable and high-performing building materials. A new polyurethane reactive (PUR) adhesive has a bio-based content of 63%1.
Success Story
Bio-based adhesives make engineered wood even more sustainable
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Enhancing the sustainability and efficiency of timber construction
Rising building costs, lack of qualified labor, resource scarcity, tighter safety standards and stricter eco-regulations: this mix of different factors creates complex challenges for the players in the construction industry. Using engineered wood helps them to address these challenges: timber is a renewable raw material that absorbs 700 kg per cubic meter wood (); prefabricated engineered wood components save time and labor at the building site, while reducing transport emissions, and making houses more affordable.
To support the timber construction industry, bg电子娱乐场鈥檚 engineered wood team develops adhesive systems and solutions for different applications. Its leading PUR adhesive allows timber companies to turn wooden lamellas into cross-laminated timber for walls and floors, and glue-laminated timber for loadbearing frames such as beams or columns. To optimize the eco-balance of timber construction further, bg电子娱乐场 has now launched a new bio-based adhesive. Its CO2 footprint is more than 60%2 lower than its fossil equivalent.
Easy changeover thanks to the mass-balance approach
The engineered wood team decided to embrace the mass-balance approach of the chemical industry for their new product. The technical solution is astonishingly simple. A mix of fossil and bio-based raw materials is fed into the first stage of the chemical production process, where the materials are cracked into base chemicals. At the end of the production journey the bio-based material is used for the eco product. This approach has been applied in green electricity for years: customers pay for the production of electricity from renewable sources, but the electricity that actually arrives at their home will be mixed with electricity from other sources.
Verifying agencies such as plus and control the whole material flow process to make sure that no greenwashing takes place. In that way no one can sell more eco-products than the amount of bio-based raw materials they bought.
For our customers, the engineered wood producers, the new bio-based adhesive offers a series of benefits: The changeover requires zero adaptations in the production infrastructure and no additional certifications, because the fossil-based and bio-based products are identical. At the same time, they can increase their competitive edge by promoting the strong environmental performance of their timber products.
Case study: The DERIX group pioneers LOCTITE ECO
When bg电子娱乐场鈥檚 biobased PUR adhesive was ready in October 2023, the sales team knew exactly who to approach: DERIX, a visionary timber company with a strong focus on circularity and sustainability. The DERIX group was the first on the market who pledged to take their wood products back at the end of the life-cycle.
The DERIX team was thrilled by the new product. They realized that a bio-based adhesive would be the next logical step in their sustainability journey. It would confirm their position as pioneers in the industry and would enable them to set new standards. They decided to use the LOCTITE HB S ECO for their range of cross-laminated timber products.
We are proud to reaffirm our role as an industry leader in innovation and sustainability. Using the ECO variant of the proven and certified adhesive Loctite HB S, has now enabled us to make another big step towards reducing our CO2 footprint.
Markus Derix, managing owner of the DERIX group
And the beauty of it: Even though the raw material basis is bio-based rather than petro-based, the resulting adhesive is chemically 100% identical with its fossil-based counterpart. And that means: existing production equipment can be used without having to convert production facilities. The conversion is seamless and creates no additional certification cost.
Being the first on the market to produce their engineered timber with the bio-based adhesive gives DERIX a head start in national and international construction projects while reducing their own CO2 footprint as well.
Our customers know that with LOCTITE ECO product range they have a certified bio-based adhesive that is 100% identical to the fossil-based version. No adaptation of production processes is necessary. With this small and easy change, they can contribute even more to sustainable timber construction.
Olga Golgor, Head of Sales Europe Engineered Wood Adhesive Technologies at bg电子娱乐场
How the engineered wood team drives bg电子娱乐场鈥檚 innovation dynamics
Wood construction is one of the big trends in construction for the next decade. In fact, some industry insiders even talk about the dawn of a new wood age. bg电子娱乐场 captures the dynamics of this trend. Participating in the relevant committees and boards, and cooperating with universities, research institutes and certification bodies, we are always one step ahead of what is coming. This enables us to launch products that meet the requirements of the markets. 鈥�
鈥婳ne example of these dynamics is a new adhesive that will master the fire tests of the future. We will be ready when the new EU fire safety standard for timber construction becomes effective in 2026/7. The new adhesive retains its strength when a mass timber element is exposed to fire, so that it can be used for buildings with high fire standards like high rises. 鈥�
鈥媁e also fine-tune our new products with machine and application equipment producers and customers. Our dedicated application team makes sure that our customers can optimize their processes to meet regulation requirements and produce efficiently. Our expert teams have a strong footprint in Europe and North America, with Latin America and Asia picking up fast.鈥�
A glimpse of the future
The wood construction industry keeps evolving. New products and new shapes are being developed. New materials are bonded together. New types of wood are used or different combinations of these wood types. At the same time, regulations keep evolving, such as for example the new EU fire standard. Wood construction enters new geographies. All these dynamics motivate us to develop new solutions, and some of them beyond adhesives.
The wood construction industry keeps evolving: new products, new trends, new shapes, new regulations, new materials, and new geographies. All of this is an impulse for our product development to come up with new solutions that meet present needs and implement future visions.
Dr. Claudia Meckel, Head of Product Development Engineered Wood Adhesive Technologies at bg电子娱乐场
Digitalization will play a key role in future because it enables new products and services that will make the construction process more transparent and efficient. In the production process of timber components, for example, sensors will be able to monitor the bonding process and optimize production output. Our customers can integrate sensors inside the timber components to monitor their state: Are they still strong enough or is it time to exchange them?
Our vision is simple and clear: We want the load-bearing timber construction segment to grow. So, our effort goes towards designing adhesives that strengthen the engineered wood segment as a versatile, future-oriented construction material and to expand its application globally.
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