Research and Development 

Research and Development plays a critical role in Stora Enso Timber’s strategy. There is a strong need to develop the next generation of high performance timber products through utilization of latest technology and product innovation.

With the rapidly increasing demands for environmentally sound solutions, our development
is very much targeted at products and technology which will bring ecological benefits to the overall life cycle of buildings.

Our latest product development success story has been the CLT (Cross laminated
timber) product. The product has been taken from research phase to full scale production in our Bad St Leonard mill in Austria. The CLT product provides us with a ready made wall, ceiling and floor elements which can be delivered directly to the prefabricated house industry and also directly to building sites.

Within R&D there are clearly opportunities to develop this CLT concept further and provide viable solution to the multi floor residential sector.

Examples of recent success stories from R&D have been the establishment of
ThermoWood (Thermally Modified Timber),  door components & window components as significant products within the company. Both solutions allow us to offer products which are
not chemically modified and have limited environmental impact during their production
and also service life.

More recently within R&D we have started to study the wider aspects of
building and living with wood. There are several multi functional properties where
further studies and utilization will be conducted. The appearance of wood has great
potential to be used more extensively and through development of scanning technology
we see the opportunity to create new improved images for our material.