Salisbury Research Facility

The Salisbury Research Facility houses more than 3,100 m² of laboratories, processing equipment and office space. In close partnership with the Forest Products Innovation Team, we are equipped to undertake forest products research and development on semi-commercial, pilot and laboratory scales.

At a single location, we combine Australia’s largest science and technical expertise, and facilities in:

• engineered wood-based composites technology
• kiln drying and sawmilling technology
• timber grading and advanced mechanical wood properties testing
• wood anatomy and wood identification
• wood product design and manufacture
• timber preservation and performance testing
• adhesives/adhesion testing and development In addition, the Salisbury Research Facility has 1,300m² of record storage capacity, housing approximately 25,000 archive boxes.

Site details

Facilities

Wood composites

• A spindleless veneer lathe, veneer guillotines and clippers, veneer composers and stitchers, glue spreaders and hot and cold presses are used to process and construct wood-based composites and engineered wood products.

Solid wood processing

• The sawmill enables full log-breakdown and twin laser alignment allows duplication of most commercial sawing patterns; electronic sizing ensures reliability and accuracy.

Timber seasoning

• Our kiln capacity covers the full spectrum of available technologies including a solar kiln, dehumidifier, conventional kilns and a super-heated steam vacuum kiln.

Testing wood properties

• Our laboratories are accredited by the National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA) for testing mechanical properties in small clears to full section samples, in-grade structural testing, and testing full-sized utility poles.
• We also determine wood properties such as shrinkage, stability, density, diffusion, permeability and durability.

Adhesives technology and testing

• An Automated Bonding Evaluation System (ABES) combined with laboratory and semi-commercial composite production facilities enables the development of a wide range of adhesives, substrates and applications

Accelerated decay testing

• Quantitative and qualitative durability assessments of plantation timber and new products are supported by long-term field tests that simulate realistic conditions of use.

Timber preservation

• A computerised, 625 litre vacuum-pressure impregnation plant and a dedicated laboratory unit enable us to develop and test treatment/modification systems for a range of products and preservatives at several scales of production.

Environmental conditioning

• Temperature- and humidity-controlled rooms allow us to evaluate joint design, fixings, construction methods, coating systems and adhesive performance.

Workshop

• The fully-equipped wood processing and machining workshop includes table and panel saws, band saws and band re-saws, spindle-moulder, panel sander and surface and panel planes.
• These enable us to develop product prototypes and prepare samples for evaluation.

Near infra-red spectrometer

• The Bruker® Fourier Transform Near Infrared Spectrometer is a non-destructive technology with many industrial applications, including rapid screening for tree improvement research and reliable, quality control for durability and other wood properties.

Chemistry analysis

• We manage a facility for analysing wood chemistry, wood additives and adhesives.

Non-destructive evaluation

• Several techniques are used to evaluate wood and product properties and performances non-destructively.

Research focus

The challenge for forest growers, wood processors, manufacturers and the construction industry is to maximise profits through the best use of products manufactured from renewable, managed forest resources.

Our research and development partnerships target research to improve wood products, processing and protection systems with:

• new engineered wood products and building systems for the construction industry
• more efficient wood processing systems
• innovative wood products suited to the new forest resources
• technical solutions for the forest and timber industry sectors.