WoodTECH Update – Issue 25

Welcome to the latest issue of WoodTECH.News.

The last couple of months has changed the face of the planet. COVID-19 has highlighted just how exposed we are to viral pandemics and how interconnected the global economy is. There are some positive signs though. Both the New Zealand and Australian Governments have responded to the crisis perhaps better than other countries. We’re hopeful that shortly we’ll be in a position to slowly reopen our economies.

While there are welcome signs, COVID-19 will still be the new normal for many months to come.

With changes still happening daily, we’re pleased to announce that WoodTECH 2020 will now be run as a series of short interactive 60-90 webinars in July 2020. While COVID-19 had made it impossible to run the original in-person events in Rotorua and Melbourne, the new online series has been designed to cover a wide range of disruptive technologies aimed at improving the efficiencies of dry mill and manufacturing operations. Troubleshooting “hands-on” sessions are also planned for timber machining and planing operators. Further details can be seen below.

In this month’s issue, we’ve covered a broad range of wood-related stories for you. Researchers from Georgia Tech have just developed a new process to protect timber from water damage without pressure-treating, a team from Scion have won a major award for developing a new transparent wood film that is thinner and comparatively stronger than original wood and Microtec has just acquired Lucidyne to become now, the largest wood products scanning company in the world.

With the Australian housing construction sector predicted to decline due to COVID-19, it’s great to see AFPA, other industry bodies and wood producers on the front-foot pushing hard for Federal and State Governments to release stimulus recovery packages for the sector. This will go a long way to protecting jobs, especially within regional communities.

That’s it for this month. Remember to send through any contributions, stories or links that we can pass onto the wider wood processing and manufacturing community. Stay safe and we look forward to perhaps better news this time in one month’s time.

Check out all the articles below and enjoy this month’s issue.