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Wood Technology Group

Covering all aspects of timber and wood based materials, and how their characterisation and properties influence their selection and use

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  • Overview

The IOM3 Wood Technology Group (formerly the Wood Technology Society) provides a technical focus for those engaged in all aspects of the the scientific, technical, practical, management/selection/and use of all timber and wood based materials.

 

Latest wood technology news & resources

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14 March 2023

Cutting construction raw materials by more than a third

The Green Alliance has launched a report on how to achieve a more circular construction sector.

News
Talking timber 2023feb.PNG
21 February 2023

Talking timber: Circular Economy

Dr Andrew Shea and Dr Eleni Toumpanaki highlight the carbon footprint contribution of the construction sector and introduce research into how home grown timber can help in meeting net zero

Guide
tree_edited.jpg
13 February 2023

Electric wood

Scientists at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden claim to have advanced understanding of wood to the point of harvesting a greater electricity yield from nanoengineered material.

News
See more resources

Latest newsletter

View the latest newsletter produced by the Wood Technology Leadership Team

View now

 

Meet the Wood Technology Leadership Team

Graham Ormondroyd

Graham Ormondroyd

IOM3 Wood Technology Group Chair

Andrew True

Andrew True

Morwenna Spear

Morwenna Spear

Research Scientist, The BioComposites Centre, Bangor University

Iain Thew

Iain Thew

Gervais Sawyer FIMMM

Gervais Sawyer FIMMM

Dr Martin Ansell FIMMM

Dr Martin Ansell FIMMM

Jim Coulson CEnv FIMMM

Jim Coulson CEnv FIMMM

Dan Ridley-Ellis

Dan Ridley-Ellis

Graham Ormondroyd

Graham Ormondroyd

IOM3 Wood Technology Group Chair

Dr Ormondroyd completed his PhD (Wood Science) at Bangor University, UK and has been the Head of Materials Research at the BioComposites Centre for 18 years and Reader in Biobased materials since February 2020. In that time has written many proposals, papers and undertaken commercial works in all aspects of biomaterials science. Dr Ormondroyd has over 100 publications including peer reviewed papers, conference proceedings, book chapters and edited books, he continues to publish regularly. Dr Ormondroyd is a Fellow of IOM3, a member of the International Research Group on Wood Protection and Chair of the Wood Technology Group.

Andrew True

Andrew True

Andrew True FIMMM has been a Board member since the year 2000, initially with the Institute of Wood Science prior to assimilation into IOM3. He is a past Chair of the Wood Technology Society, and currently is involved with the WTG website.  He was also a member of the IOM3 Membership Committee.

In 2017 Andrew was awarded the IOM3 Outstanding Contribution Award.

Andrew has extensive experience in the softwood sector of the timber trade and retired from active trading in 2018. He has a BA (Hons) gained during employment with the National Coal Board, followed by 3 years at TRADA. Then came 11 years working in the London office of the Canadian softwood shipper Seaboard, before moving to Weyerhaeuser Company at Windsor ending as UK Director. From 1992 he was owner director of a softwood sales agency business, latterly representing primary German and Swiss softwood sawmills and selling to customers in the UK, Japan, USA, and the EU.

Andrew had a keen interest in badminton, and in the early 1980’s was instrumental in the building, from scratch, a purpose built 6-court badminton centre in High Wycombe.  This made use of state of the (then) art timber technology!  Glulam beams, waferboard (a forerunner to OSB), Canadian exterior plywood, Swedish sawfalling boards (for the exterior cladding), and a hemlock sprung floor, were blended into a totally timber building.  And, not forgetting, Douglas fir joists for the flooring in the social part of the structure.  The waferboard was used as a decorative product in addition to being internal cladding.


The emphasis on Canadian timber products in the badminton centre was primarily due to the fact that the architect and engineer, and Andrew, were experienced in the British Columbia forestry business

Andrew is also actively involved with the Institute of Advanced Motorists and is currently a Chief Observer.

For recreation, Andrew is a hiker and cyclist, and a club bowls player.

Morwenna Spear

Morwenna Spear

Research Scientist, The BioComposites Centre, Bangor University

Dr Morwenna Spear has a BSc (Hons) in Forestry and Forest Products, and a PhD in Natural Fibre Composite Materials. Her research interests include the physical, mechanical and thermal properties of wood and has applied a wide range of techniques to understand and develop wood modification technologies. She also has experience of scaling-up new technologies for industry, and value-adding for timber. Morwenna also has a strong interest in the use of timber as a renewable and sustainable construction material, considering availability, embodied and sequestered carbon, and the route to net zero. She works closely with the timber industry in Wales and the UK. She has also conducted market studies on the forest products sector, the use of timber in construction and the bio-based composites sector.

Dr Spear has supervised a number of MSc and PhD students in topics relating to timber and bio-based materials. She is involved in the Places of Climate Change research group and Plastics Research Centre Wales within Bangor University. She has written many book chapters on topics including: natural materials, wood based composites, timber properties and recycling. Morwenna is the vice Chair of the Wood Technology Society of the IOM3.

Iain Thew

Iain Thew

Iain Thew is a Structural Engineer with a particular interest in timber and conservation. He works for Structural and Civil Consultants, a practice which specialises in the design and specification of British grown hardwoods, and is a keen advocate for the wider use of timber in construction in the UK. He is a qualified visual strength grader and has considerable experience in surveying historic timber structures.

Iain was a member on the Younger Members' Committee from 2011 until 2018.

Gervais Sawyer FIMMM

Gervais Sawyer FIMMM

Gervais started working in the wood industry at the age of 18, studying Wood Technology at evening classes. His work experience included hardwoods, softwoods, veneers and wood preservation. While pursuing a career in works management he found that most of his time was taken up by training suitable staff and so moved into full-time lecturing. Whilst at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University he gained a Diploma in Wood Science. In later years, he spent his time in consultancy for the Forest Products Research Centre.

Although retired in 2007, he is now the editor of the International Wood Products Journal. He is also very active in schools’ outreach, promoting the wonders of wood to schoolchildren everywhere. He is also a busy consultant solving problems related to wood and manufactures equipment and test materials for the preservation industry.

Dr Martin Ansell FIMMM

Dr Martin Ansell FIMMM

Martin Ansell is a University of Sussex graduate in materials science with a PhD researching glassy electronic materials awarded by the University of London. Following two years of industrial research at Standard Telecommunication Laboratory, Harlow, Essex he moved to the University of Bath where he was eventually promoted to reader in materials science. Throughout his career at Bath he has won numerous grants from UK research councils and the European Union and managed Knowledge Transfer Partnerships working with industry. He supervised over 30 graduate PhD students and was external examiner for degree programmes at Buckinghamshire College and Swansea University. He was President of the Institute of Wood Science from 1994-1996 and currently sits on the Board of the Wood Technology Group. Following retirement in 2017 he became an honorary reader and continues to enjoy engaging in materials research within the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering at Bath. 

Jim Coulson CEnv FIMMM

Jim Coulson CEnv FIMMM

Jim Coulson is a consultant Wood Scientist who founded and still runs TFT Woodexperts Limited: based in North Yorkshire since 1991.

His early career in Wood Science was spent at TRADA – in the days when that organisation was still an independent Research Association – and where he, first of all, worked in the Training Department, teaching Strength Grading and other Timber Technology skills to members of the Timber Trade. He later transferred to TRADA’s Regional Service, running their network of ten Regional Offices: but when TRADA was privatised, Jim left and set up his own consultancy practice, which has now been running successfully for over 30 years. Woodexperts teaches and examines both an Accredited Level 4 Certificate in Wood Science and Timber Technology and an Accredited Level 6 Diploma in Advanced Wood Science. The practice also works with both UK and international clients, solving timber problems and writing Expert Witness Reports on all manner of wood-related topics.
 
Jim’s first timber qualification was in 1976: when he gained Distinction in the Certificate in Timber Studies at Buckinghamshire College. He followed this with two prizes – in the Institute of Wood Science Certificate Course in 1977 and the IWSc Associateship Course in 1978 – thus gaining his full qualifications in advanced Wood Science and Timber Engineering.

In 1986, he was elected as a Fellow of the Faculty of Building and in 2004, he was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Wood Science, following his period as President of that organisation from 2002-2004. 

After the merger of the IWSc with the IOM3, Jim was created a Fellow of the IOM3 in 2014; and he later qualified as a Chartered Environmentalist in 2016 – forty years after gaining his initial Wood Science qualification. 

He sits on a couple of BSI Committees, concerned with structural timber matters and sustainable development in construction; and he is a member of the International Wood Committee for ICOMOS (the International Council on Monuments and Sites). He is also a member of the International Research Group on Wood protection (IRG-WP). 

Jim has published three books: “Wood in Construction” (2012) “The Sustainable Use of Wood” (2014); and “A Handbook for the Sustainable Use of Wood in Construction” (2021).

In his private life, Jim is a Setter of both cryptic and quick crossword puzzles; having first been published in the Listener (the then BBC magazine) in 1975. After more than forty years, he still sets occasionally for The Listener Puzzle series (now published in The Times every Saturday) under the pseudonym of Jago; and he also sets for the Sunday Telegraph’s Enigmatic Variations series under the pseudonym of X-Type (he also sets the back-page Cryptic and Quick puzzles for the Daily Telegraph once a month – usually on a Tuesday – but those puzzles do not carry any Setter’s name). Members of IOM3 who read Materials World will also come across Jim’s monthly “themed” crosswords – set under the pseudonym of Anobium (the name for the scientific Genus of “Woodworm”).

Dan Ridley-Ellis

Dan Ridley-Ellis

Dan Ridley-Ellis is Associate Professor and head of the Centre Wood Science and Technology at Edinburgh Napier University. He is one of the UK’s technical experts on guessing the strength of wood and can talk for hours on the topic – which he frequently does if nobody stops him.  His main area of research is understanding the properties of wood, and how they are influenced by tree growth, forest management, and climate.  He represents the UK at European Standards Committees for grading of construction timber, and the majority of structural sawn timber produced in the UK is now graded with settings he developed. He was named "woodland hero" for 2016 by Grown in Britain, and is also active in online learning, public engagement, and science communication.

 

He is a member of:

  • CEN TC124 WG 1 (Test methods), WG 2 (Solid Timber) and TG1 (Task Group for grading and strength properties)
  • UK Timber Grading Committee
  • British Standards Committee B/518 “Structural Timber”
  • and is Northern UK representative for the Northern European Network for Wood Science & Engineering

 

Join the IOM3 wood technology community (logged in members only) and receive updates about the latest relevant news, technical content and events. 

RT @Magdalena_Broda: Call for papers: @Forests_MDPI Special Issue "#PhysicalProperties of #Wood". More information: https://t.co/SG6FSkx2…

@Wood Technology Society
Tuesday, 7 December 2021

RT @WKWales: Listen to Rob Thomas @HiraethArch and @MattStevens0n talk #innovation and join the conversation! Hosted by @taityfucartref…

@Wood Technology Society
Thursday, 2 December 2021

RT @iom3: IOM3 has partnered with @ASMInternatnl to offer a mutual e-membership connecting materials professionals together from all over t…

@Wood Technology Society
Monday, 29 November 2021

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Talking Timber

These regular one page articles are topical, informative and educational, covering a range of aspects relating to wood and the timber business. 

This is an ongoing series contributed by IOM3 members or contacts, published in the TTJ (Timber Trade Journal) and reproduced with their kind permission. 

Talking timber 2023feb.PNG
21 February 2023

Talking timber: Circular Economy

Dr Andrew Shea and Dr Eleni Toumpanaki highlight the carbon footprint contribution of the construction sector and introduce research into how home grown timber can help in meeting net zero

your waste - talking timber.PNG
8 December 2022

Talking timber: your waste could be treasure

Gervais Sawyer, a member of the WTG Leadership Team and editor of International Wood Products Journal, laments about the invisibility of the timber trade in our schools.

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1 October 2022

Talking timber current challenges

A synopsis of their recent lecture for the WTG Timber 2022 Conference, the authors highlight current challenges facing timber engineers

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7 August 2022

Talking timber: carbon emissions

Tabitha Binding discusses the importance of timber in tackling climate change by embracing natural carbon capture.

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7 June 2022

Talking timber: superheroes at work

Marlene Cramer presents a thought provoking piece on the recycling and re-use of wood and structural timber

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21 April 2022

Talking timber: in search of freedom

John Park FIMMM discusses the new Brexit Freedoms Bill, an outcome from the Grenfell Enquiry, and consequent implications for the timber trade.

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21 February 2022

Talking timber: juvenile and mature fibres

Dr Morwenna Spear FIMMM introduces the topic of juvenile wood in the development of the tree, which today is of greater importance now that there is greater reliance on plantation grown timber.  A very good and easy to read example of wood science in action, and ends with a challenge to all wood scientists.

TT Nov Dec 2021.png
19 November 2021

Talking timber: Marlon Brando understood

For our Christmas piece, John Park highlights the importance of wood since ‘time’ began.  Following two chance encounters he is drawing readers’ attention to the fact that although we historically have the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age, the Wood Age encompasses all.  But, few people have really noticed this!  Today, trees and wood are maintaining their position of global importance.  In typical Christmas fashion John also recommends, thanks to those two chance encounters, two books for the reader’s essential Christmas present list

TT oct 2021.png
1 October 2021

Talking timber: softwood prices

The market should learn to appreciate the value of softwood, says John Park WTS board member

TT July.png
1 August 2021

Talking timber: wood value

Higher prices means more scope for investment and innovation, says WTS's Andrew True

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1 June 2021

Talking timber: words from wood

Wood-related terms have entered common parlance, say Andrew True and John Park

TT March April.png
1 April 2021

Talking timber: plywood revisited

Plywood should be fit for purpose and its credentials should be indelibly marked and legible, but as John Park WTS board member points out, this is not always the case

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1 February 2021

Talking timber: how others see you

Gervais Sawyer's wood science credentials are hidden from view when he goes shopping for timber

TT Nov 2020.png
1 December 2020

Talking timber: climate change

There has never been a better time to be involved in research for the further development of wood, says WTS Chair, Graham Ormondroyd

TT Sep Oct 2020.png
1 October 2020

Talking timber: juvenile wood

What happens to a tree's branches as it gets older determines not just the prevalence of knots but also the nature of the resultant wood fibre. John Park WTS board member reports

 

Forthcoming events

  • Free
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  • 29 March 2023

Transition Talks: Materials Challenges and Opportunities for Fusion Reactors

From superconducting magnets to breeding blankets. Join us explore the materials challenges and opportunities for fusion reactors.

  • Free
  • Webinar
  • 13 April 2023

Quantification of organic additives in battery materials

Exploring the use of thermogravimetric analysis with mass spectroscopy for carbon characterisation in Li-ion battery cathodes

  • Free
  • Webinar
  • 18 April 2023

Machine learning in biomaterials

Join us to hear more about machine learning in biomaterials.

See more events

Distance learning courses to support professional development in the wood industry

Want to develop your career in the wood industry and study at your own pace?

We offer a number distance learning courses leading to qualifications that can be followed at a time and pace to suit you.  You can sign up to the following at any time throughout the year. 

PIABC Level 2 Award in Timber & Panel Products & Their Uses

A course for those new to the wood industry or wishing to broaden their knowledge.

Find out more

PIABC Level 3 Certificate in Wood Technology & Application

A course for those that wish to develop their career in the wood industry further.

Find out more

International Wood Products Journal

 

International Wood Products Journal (formerly The Journal of the Institute of Wood Science) publishes peer reviewed contributions on all aspects of wood science, engineering and technology, its processing and applications.

 

IOM3 members have free online access to this journal (please log in and click on the "Access journals" page in the side menu to reveal the link to the Taylor & Francis portal)

 

International Wood Products Journal

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