Spectrophotometric measurement is a method to determine the treatment intensity of thermowood after production (Welzbacher 2012). The CIEL*a*b* color values show significant correlations with the treatment intensity (Sundqvist 2004, Brischke et al. 2009) and are thus a suitable method for quality determination.

The investigations at the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development, HNEE were aimed at determining the quality differences occurring in the production of thermowood within a production batch by means of a rapid test based on CIEL*a*b* color values immediately after the production process.

Project goals and outcomes:

• Development of a new process for the thermal modification of wood
• Design and construction of a pilot plant at HNEE
• Process control optimization
• Adjustment of the parameters to the respective wood species and the desired end product properties
• Investigation into the processing and use of thermowood products
• Analysis of the marketing of thermowood products
• Development of a standardized procedure for timely quality control of thermowood
• Using the color value as an indicator for the TMT properties

You can find more projects about thermowood here.