Educational visit of the Department of Forestry, Wood Sciences & Design abroad.

The Institute of Wood Furniture & Wooden Packaging together with the Laboratory of Technology & Quality Control of Furniture and Woodwork of the Department of Forestry, Wood Sciences and Design of the University of Thessaly, carried out an educational visit to Northern Italy to two industries and the University of Trento.

Sixteen participants, undergraduates, postgraduates and professors visited for three days from September 25th to 28th, 2022 companies dealing with the subject of wooden structural construction with modern wood-based materials. More specifically, the company Rothoblaas https://www.rothoblaas.com/ which produces and markets products related to metal connectors, screws, protective films, sealants and sound insulation as well as protective means specialized for wooden constructions. The experience and know-how transferred to the participants showed the development that exists in central Europe in the subject of technology on wooden houses. Modern automated warehouses and a research & development department that is constantly launching new innovative products that evolve constructions have shown how popular wood is for home construction.

A visit was also made to the company XLAM DOLOMITI https://www.xlamdolomiti.it/ which not only manufactures wooden construction materials (CLT – Cross Laminated Timber) but undertakes such constructions as a whole, from design – building statics, production of structural elements and installation – installation in the final space.

Of great interest was the visit to the University of Trento https://www.unitn.it/ in which the engineering department works closely with the industries of the region for the quality control of the products produced by the companies but also actively participates in the development of of wooden construction as a whole. The behavior of wood in an earthquake and its resistance to fire prove the suitability of this material for the construction of apartment buildings in our country as well.

The experiences gained and the dynamics of wood as a promising structural element are the main characteristic that shows the acceptance of this material all over the world.

We express our special thanks to the company Rothoblaas which supports every effort of extroversion of the Department of Forestry of the University of Thessaly, and in particular to Mr. Spyros Mitsakos, the company’s manager for Greece & Cyprus.