Search Results (39)

Fungi in the Chlorociboria genus produce a blue pigment called xylindein—a pigment with high UV stability, photovoltaic capacity, and which is used as a historic wood colorant. The pigment has not yet been synthesized; however, recent studies have shown that optimizing sucrose and glucose levels, as well as nitrogen levels during Chlorociboria growth, affects the amount of pigment produced. Ideal for laboratory and commercial production, most users of xylindein are hobbyist woodworkers for whom this level of control is not feasible. This study sought to determine easily-accessible sugar sources capable of stimulating xylindein production specifically for “at home” cultivation. Four ‘common’ sugar sources were tested for their ability to stimulate pigment production of four Chlorociboria species: honey, maple syrup, coconut cream, and high fructose corn syrup. All fungi produced significantly more xylindein in honey-based media. Across the different types of honey, the three fungi produced the most xylindein on raw honey over the more “processed” honey, although both raw and processed honey induced pigmentation. The use of honey as a media sugar source for Chlorociboria spp. offers a reliable, cheap, and effective method to optimize sucrose for hobbyists interested in maximizing their xylindein output, and may offer a cheaper pigment stimulant for larger-scale, industrial production. Full article

The European woodworking and furniture sector faces increasing sustainability challenges, including dependence on virgin raw materials and low recycling rates of furniture waste, highlighting the need for integrated environmental and economic assessments to support circular solutions. The purpose of this study is to evaluate and compare the environmental and economic performance of boards produced with different proportions of Polyethylene Recycling Waste (PRW) sourced from a Portuguese plastic recycling company, using an integrated Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Costing approach. The environmental performance was assessed following ISO standards using the ReCiPe 2016 Midpoint (H) method, while the economic analysis included internal and external costs. First, the environmental and economic performance of PRW was assessed per 1 kg of material. Subsequently, four board formulations produced at pre-industrial scale, in a Portuguese company, were compared per 1 m³ of board: 100PRW; 80PRW20FW (with 20% furniture waste, FW); 80PRW20PE (with 20% virgin polyethylene, PE); and 80PRW20PU (with 20% virgin polyurethane, PU). Results show that waste-based boards (100PRW and 80PRW20FW) consistently present lower environmental impacts and improved cost-efficiency compared to formulations incorporating virgin polymers, particularly PU. Global warming and terrestrial ozone formation were the main contributing impact categories, largely driven by energy consumption. The dominant impact stage varied by formulation, with pressing prevailing in waste-based options and raw material production in virgin-polymer-based boards. These findings demonstrate that increasing the share of waste materials can significantly improve both environmental and economic performance, supporting the transition towards circular material solutions in the furniture sector. This study provides a novel contribution by integrating LCA and LCC in the assessment of pre-industrial PRW boards, offering practical insights for industry decision-making and sustainable material design. Full article

Background: This study examines the competitive dynamics of the artisanal wooden furniture industry in Misantla, Veracruz, Mexico, a predominantly informal productive system characterized by family-managed production units and strong territorial embeddedness. Methods: A mixed-methods research design was employed. Quantitative data were collected from 187 family-managed production units (86 woodworking units and 101 workshops) using a structured questionnaire based on five-level Likert scales assessing external efficiency, collective efficiency, and innovation. Statistical analyses included descriptive measures and chi-square tests to examine associations between competitiveness and collective strategies, while qualitative validation and thematic interpretation based on expert assessments were used to contextualize sectoral practices and structural constraints. Results: The findings indicate a low overall competitiveness score (1.92/5), associated with informal practices, limited technical training, and weak supply chain integration. Despite these constraints, the sector maintains a strong cultural identity and contributes to its local economy. Conclusions: Artisanal supply chains can achieve functional levels of logistics performance through internal coordination dynamics. Strengthening collaboration mechanisms is a viable strategy for improving logistics performance in artisanal manufacturing systems in emerging economies. These findings provide empirical evidence to support the design of collaborative strategies that integrate traditional craftsmanship with modern supply chain practices in artisanal micro-industries. Full article

This study investigated spruce wood (Picea abies Karst. L.) dust generated during sanding in a woodworking company, focusing on its health, explosion, and fire hazards. Microscopic analyses revealed that dust particles ranged from 2.38 μm × 1.69 μm to 499.71 μm × 403.30 μm, with an average size of 73.2 μm × 37.98 μm. Smaller particles exhibited a spherical morphology, while larger ones were elongated and fibrous. Sieve analysis confirmed that particles sized 63–75 μm formed the largest fraction (46.74%), with 71% of the total dust being airborne (<100 μm), including 5% PM₁₀ and 1% PM_2.5. Explosion tests identified a lower explosion limit (LEL) of 80 g·m⁻³, with dust classified as highly explosive (ST 2). Smaller particles were found to significantly reduce the LEL, increasing explosion susceptibility. These findings highlight the dual risk of inhalation exposure and explosion potential. Practical safety recommendations include ensuring efficient local dust extraction, mandatory use of respiratory protection, and restricted worker movement near sanders. Furthermore, organizational measures aligned with ATEX standards—such as daily cleaning, removal of settled dust layers, use of explosion-safe industrial vacuum cleaners, and installation of automatic explosion suppression systems in extraction units—are essential. Full article

The increasing emphasis on environmental protection, climate change mitigation, and the transition to a circular economy requires industries, including the wood-processing sector, to integrate sustainability into strategic and operational management. Green growth indicators represent essential tools for evaluating the environmental, economic, and social impacts of business activities, while also contributing to the sustainable economics and responsible management of forest resources and products. This study applies a qualitative research design using structured interviews with 10 executives from medium and large woodworking enterprises in Slovakia. The interviews examined company strategies, practices, and challenges in sustainable development and forest resource utilization. The findings reveal that while many companies actively manage waste, invest in green technologies, and conduct internal audits, the broader implementation of environmental management systems and the uptake of public sustainability funding remain limited. Notably, 90% of respondents emphasized waste volume and recovery rates as critical indicators. Based on the results, a set of green growth indicators was developed and categorized across key thematic areas including waste management, energy efficiency, stakeholder communication, certification, and strategic planning. These indicators not only support the assessment of corporate sustainability but also strengthen efficient forest resource management, responsible use of raw materials, and the long-term economic viability of the sector. The study highlights the importance of systematically designed and practically applicable indicators for guiding companies toward sustainable competitiveness and emphasizes the need for stronger institutional support, improved access to reliable data, and integration of sustainability metrics into core business decision-making. Full article

Cutting beech plywood using abrasive water jet (AWJ) technology represents a significant area of research due to increasing demands for precision, quality, and environmental sustainability in manufacturing processes within the woodworking industry. AWJ technology enables non-contact cutting of materials without causing thermal deformation or mechanical damage, which is crucial for preserving the structural integrity and mechanical properties of the plywood. This article investigates cutting beech plywood using technical methods using an abrasive water jet (AWJ) at 400 MPa pressure, with Australian garnet (80 MESH) as the abrasive material. It examines how abrasive mass flow rate, traverse speed, and material thickness affect AWJ lag, which in turn influences both cutting quality and accuracy. Measurements were conducted with power abrasive mass flow rates of 250, 350, and 450 g/min and traverse speeds of 0.2, 0.4, and 0.6 m/min. Results show that increasing the abrasive mass flow rate from 250 g/min to 350 g/min slightly decreased the AWJ cut width by 0.05 mm, while further increasing to 450 g/min caused a slight increase of 0.1 mm. Changes in traverse speed significantly influenced cut width; increasing the traverse speed from 0.2 m/min to 0.4 m/min widened the AWJ by 0.21 mm, while increasing it to 0.6 m/min caused a slight increase of 0.18 mm. For practical applications, it is recommended to use an abrasive mass flow rate of around 350 g/min combined with a traverse speed between 0.2 and 0.4 m/min when cutting beech plywood with AWJ. This balance minimizes jet lag and maintains high surface quality comparable to conventional milling. For thicker plywood, reducing the traverse speed closer to 0.2 m/min and slightly increasing the abrasive flow should ensure clean cuts without compromising surface integrity. Full article

Next to solid wood, laminated particleboard is the most widely used wood-based material in the furniture industry. Ensuring the high quality of the laminate surface after machining is of critical importance for furniture manufacturers, particularly prior to the edge banding process, as this process significantly influences the final aesthetic and functional quality of panel elements. The objective of this review article is to gather and evaluate the current state of knowledge regarding the influence of machining process parameters and the physical and mechanical properties of laminated particleboard on machining quality. Particular emphasis is placed on the occurrence of laminate damage, commonly referred to as delamination, a prevalent defect in the furniture manufacturing sector. Both categories of influencing factors—process-related and material-related—are analyzed within the context of the three primary technological processes employed in the woodworking industry, namely drilling, cutting, and milling. The analysis revealed that a persistent research gap concerns the relationship between machining quality and material parameters, particularly in the case of milling—a process of critical importance in the furniture industry. Full article

This study explores how integrating design processes into the native timber industry of southern Chile, specifically in the Araucanía and Los Ríos regions, can improve the value chain and promote sustainability. Chile’s native wood sector is constrained by fragmented value chains, underutilised small-diameter logs and limited market confidence. These challenges jeopardise forest sustainability and rural livelihoods, underscoring the imperative to find innovative solutions to reinvigorate the sector. A market gap analysis revealed critical limitations in the current industry, including low supply, limited demand, and weak technological development, especially in producing value-added wood products. The research identified over 417,000 hectares of second-growth roble (Nothofagus obliqua)-raulí (Nothofagus alpina)-coigüe (Nothofagus dombeyi) forests suitable for sustainable management. Interviews with woodworking SMEs showed that 66% already use native timber, yet 46% of the projected volume remains underutilised due to the prevalence of short and thin logs. In response to these challenges, the study developed innovative prototypes such as interior claddings and lattices made from smaller, underutilised logs. These designs were evaluated and validated for use in residential and public buildings, demonstrating their potential to meet new market demands while promoting resource efficiency. The results show that, whilst there is a clear need for better infrastructure, workforce training, and commercial planning to support product adoption, design-driven innovation offers a promising path forward enhancing the industry’s competitiveness. Demonstrating how design-led integration can transform under-used native timber into high-value products, simultaneously driving sustainable forest stewardship and local economic growth. Full article

This work identifies relevant sustainability targets from the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for main value chains of biobased products, categorized into four dimensions: environment, circularity, social, and economics. Of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 85 targets were identified as aligning with sustainability criteria for industrial biobased systems. Six sectors with biobased activity were analyzed, chemicals, construction, plastics, textiles, woodworking, and pulp and paper, each represented by 3–5 value chains. These value chains were chosen based on certification availability, production scale in Europe, economic importance, and potential to replace fossil-based products. In total, 25 value chains were assessed qualitatively for their positive, negative, or neutral impact on each selected SDG target, using public data like EU reports, life cycle analyses, and expert insights. The results showed that 43 SDG targets were directly applicable to the value chains, with higher synergies for those using waste as feedstock over primary resources like crops or virgin wood. Overall, advances in technology and holistic approaches are paving the way for biobased solutions to replace resource-intensive, petroleum-derived materials and chemicals. These alternatives offer additional advantages, such as enhanced recyclability, biodegradability, and reduced toxicity, making them promising candidates for sustainable development. This study underscores that technological progress and a comprehensive approach can further advance sustainable biobased solutions in industry and have a relevant positive impact on various SDGs. Full article

The eco-friendly lifestyle has gained traction at individual and industrial levels, especially following Europe’s “Green Deal”. While the woodworking industry in Latvia has made strides toward waste-free production, wood processing still produces by-products that require effective utilization. Instead of burning these residues for energy, a sustainable option is repurposing birch bark into suberinic acids adhesive, which is environmentally friendly and safe for humans. Research shows that thermally modified aspen, birch, and poplar veneers treated using the Termovuoto process at 160 °C/50 min, 204 °C/120 min, 214 °C/120 min, 217 °C/180 min, and 218 °C/30 min can be bonded with this adhesive and meet the EN 314-2:1993 standard for outdoor applications classified as Class 3 bonding. However, hydrothermally modified veneers treated at 160 °C 50 min do not bond successfully, failing to meet Class 3 requirements. Full article

In recent years, the demand for forest products has remained high, which, in turn, has intensified competition for timber exports. The Russian Far East is a region with one of the largest forest areas in the country; however, the competitiveness of the Far Eastern Federal District (FEFD) in wood forest product exports remains an open question. The purpose of this study is to assess and compare the competitiveness of the timber industry in the FEFD using a comprehensive competitiveness index. In this study, international trade indices were calculated on the basis of export and import data on wood forest products. Then, the indices were weighted by the methods of entropy weight and coefficient of variation. Finally, the two methods were combined, and a comprehensive competitiveness index of the Russian region’s timber industry was derived. The results show that the FEFD maintains competitiveness in the wood processing industry. The calculation results for the competitiveness of the woodworking industry will help to strengthen the attractiveness of trade in the Far Eastern Federal District and will contribute to the strengthening of positions in the domestic market and the expansion of trade relations of the FEFD in the international market. All of this will form new trade chains, which, in turn, will have a positive impact on the economic development of both the region itself and the countries that have trade relations with the FEFD in the sphere of export and import of wood products. Full article

The manipulator has been widely used in the wood processing industry; the main problem currently faced is optimizing the motion trajectory to enhance the processing efficiency and operational stability of the woodworking manipulator and worktable. A 5-7-5 piecewise polynomial interpolation method is proposed to construct the spatial trajectories of each joint. An improved non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (INSGA-II) is proposed to achieve a time–jerk multi-objective trajectory planning that can meet the dual requirements of minimal processing time and reduced motion impact. In order to address the limitations of the standard NSGA-II algorithm, which is prone to local optima and exhibits slow convergence, we propose a good point set method for multi-objective optimization population initialization and a linear ranking selection method to refine the parent selection process within the genetic algorithm. The improved NSGA-II algorithm markedly enhanced both the uniformity of the population distribution and convergence speed. In practical applications, selecting suitable weightings to construct a normalized weight function can identify the optimal solution from the Pareto frontier curve. A high-order continuous and smooth optimal trajectory without abrupt changes can be obtained. The simulation results demonstrated that the 5-7-5 piecewise polynomial interpolation curve effectively constructed a high-order smooth processing trajectory with continuous and smooth velocity, acceleration, and jerk, free from discontinuities. Moreover, the INSGA-II algorithm outperforms the original algorithm in terms of convergence and distribution, enabling the optimal time–jerk multi-objective trajectory planning that adheres to constraint conditions. Optimized by the improved NSGA-II algorithm, the optimal total running time is 4.5400 s, and the optimal jerk is 17.934 $\mathrm{m}\left(\mathrm{r}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{d}\right)/{\mathrm{s}}^3$. This provides a novel approach to solving the inefficiencies and operational instability prevalent in traditional woodworking equipment. Full article

Turning to green technologies in wastewater treatment is a well-known global trend. The use of natural sorbents of plant origin or phytosorbents in order to purify water from various types of pollutants is becoming more and more popular. This solves several important problems at once: the use of harmless natural materials, reducing the cost of processing, and waste disposal. Moreover, there is a global increase in waste in the agricultural, food, woodworking, and other industries. This review presents data on the modern use of natural materials, mainly vegetable waste, as sorbents in wastewater treatment technologies. Natural materials remove ion metals, dyes, crude oil and petroleum products, and other organic and non-organic contaminants. The techniques of obtaining phytosorbents from plant raw materials are considered. The methods for activation and modification of the various phytosorbents, which provide greater sorption efficiency, are presented. The adsorption mechanisms for various water contaminants are examined, and model descriptions are shown. It has been revealed that the effectiveness of sorption interaction mainly depends on the presence of functional groups. Studies over the past twenty years have shown good prospects for the use of such materials and technologies in practice. Full article

With the increasing shortage of petroleum resources and the growing seriousness of environmental pollution, the exploitation and application of bio-based coatings derived from renewable resources have become increasingly important for the woodworking industry. Wood wax oil (WWO) is a new type of bio-based natural coating material that offers an eco-friendly solution for wood protection. This paper focused on the utilization of tung oil and beeswax as the primary raw materials for the preparation of wood wax oil. The WWO was based on the oxidation polymerization of tung oil, which served as the foundation for the preparation process. The effects of the photoinitiator TPO-L on the curing performance of the WWO were investigated, and the curing mechanism of the WWO system induced by photoinitiators was analyzed and characterized by infrared spectroscopy. Through ultraviolet irradiation experiments and coating quality tests, the effects of incremental photoinitiators on the properties of the surface drying time, gloss, color, hydrophobicity, and solution resistance of the treated ash wood were studied. The results indicated that the addition of photoinitiators was beneficial for the rapid polymerization of wood wax oil. A UV light intensity of 30 w was found to be sufficient to initiate the curing process. Specifically, when using TPO-L as the initiator at a concentration of 3 wt%, the surface could be surface-dried within 10 min under UV exposure. Under these curing conditions, wood wax oil coatings based on tung oil with comprehensive curing properties can be obtained. Additionally, adding 6% beeswax to the tung oil can effectively enhance the hydrophobicity of pure tung-oil-based wood protective coatings. Full article

Woodworking manipulators are applied in wood processing to promote automatic levels in the wood industry. However, traditional trajectory planning results in low operational stability and inefficiency. Therefore, we propose a method combining 3-5-3 piecewise polynomial (composed of cubic and quintic polynomials) interpolation and an improved particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm to study trajectory planning and time optimization of woodworking manipulators. In trajectory planning, we conducted the kinematics analysis to determine the position information of joints at path points in joint space and used 3-5-3 piecewise polynomial interpolation to fit a point-to-point trajectory and ensure the stability. For trajectory time optimization, we propose an improved PSO that adapts multiple strategies and incorporates a golden sine optimization algorithm (Gold-SA). Therefore, the proposed improved PSO can be called GoldS-PSO. Using benchmark functions, we compared GoldS-PSO to four other types of PSO algorithms and Gold-SA to verify its effectiveness. Then, using GoldS-PSO to optimize the running time of each joint, our results showed that GoldS-PSO was superior to basic PSO and Gold-SA. The shortest running time obtained by using GoldS-PSO was 47.35% shorter than before optimization, 8.99% shorter than the basic PSO, and 6.23% shorter than the Gold-SA, which improved the running efficiency. Under optimal time for GoldS-PSO, our simulation results showed that the displacement and velocity of each joint were continuous and smooth, and the acceleration was stable without sudden changes, proving the method’s feasibility and superiority. This study can serve as the basis for the motion control system of woodworking manipulators and provide reference for agricultural and forestry engineering optimization problems. Full article