Technical wood wool for composites

Due to its very good mechanical properties at low density, wood is a high potential and sustainable raw material for composite applications. Wood as small particles are commonly processed with polymers to Wood-Polymer-Composites (WPC). Thereby, the inherent strength of the wood is not used to its full potential. In order to transfer the strength properties of solid wood with good shaping properties to composite, wood wool properties were studied. Wood wool is a well-known raw material in the wood-processing industry and is mainly used for packaging, animal bedding and insulation boards [1, 2]. The use of wood wool as a flexible, formable reinforcement for polymer composites is not known so far. Therefore industrial wood wool and developed experimental wood wool are investigated and evaluated for their suitability as fibre reinforcement for composites. The mechanical properties, in particular the tensile strength, are the relevant factors.