Multi-layered Timber Panel with Porous Middle Layer

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Solution Overview

Problem

Conventional cross-laminated timber panels are heavy due to solid wood construction, making them difficult to handle and transport, while maintaining strength, airtightness, and fire resistance.

Innovation Solution

A multi-layer board design featuring top layers with no gaps and middle layers with material-free cavities filled with low-density materials, using wooden slabs with uneven edges to create gaps, reducing overall weight without compromising strength or performance.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Strength

If solid wood boards are used to construct cross-laminated timber panels, then strength and structural integrity are improved, but weight increases making handling and transport difficult

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvestructural integrityVSAvoidpanel weight
Core Design Contradiction:
StrengthVSWeight of moving object

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces cavities within the wood boards of at least one middle layer, creating a porous structure that reduces weight while maintaining structural integrity. The cavities are formed by arranging wooden slabs with uneven lateral edges, creating material-free intermediate spaces that lighten the panel without compromising strength.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #31Porous materials

Solution Approach 2:

The patent creates a composite structure by combining wood boards with cavities filled with filling material. This composite approach allows the panel to maintain strength through the wood framework while reducing weight through the cavities and lighter filling materials.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #40Composite materials

2Strength

If boards are arranged close together without gaps to ensure strength and fire protection, then structural integrity and fire resistance are improved, but manufacturing complexity increases due to precise trimming requirements

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvepanel strengthVSAvoidmanufacturing complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
StrengthVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent deliberately uses asymmetric, uneven lateral edges of wooden slabs to create the cavities in middle layers. This asymmetric approach simplifies manufacturing by eliminating the need for precise trimming to create uniform gaps, while the uneven edges naturally form the desired material-free intermediate spaces.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #4Asymmetry

Solution Approach 2:

The uneven lateral edges of the wooden slabs automatically create the cavities when slabs are arranged next to each other. The structure serves itself by using the natural characteristics of the wood material to form the desired gaps, eliminating the need for additional machining or trimming operations.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

3Reliability

If solid wood construction is used to maintain airtightness, then fire resistance and structural integrity are improved, but weight increases and handling becomes more difficult

Engineering Contradiction:
ImproveairtightnessVSAvoidpanel weight
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSWeight of moving object

Solution Approach 1:

The patent uses porous wood boards with cavities in middle layers to reduce weight while maintaining airtightness. The cavities are strategically positioned and filled with appropriate materials to preserve the panel's ability to resist air passage, fire, and sound while significantly reducing overall weight.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #31Porous materials

Data Source

PatentEP2893101B1Multi-layered timber panel
Publication Date: 2021.04.07 ZUEBLIN TIMBER AICHACH GMBH
  • EP2893101B1 patent drawingFigure 1a~1c
  • EP2893101B1 patent drawingFigure 2a~2d
  • EP2893101B1 patent drawingFigure 2e~2f

AI summary

The invention relates to a multi-layered timber panel comprising a first covering layer (1), a second covering layer (2), and at least one middle layer (3) arranged between them, said covering layers (1,2) each being formed from timber layers that comprise a plurality of adjacently arranged timbers (a, b, c). In order to provide such a multi-layered timber panel in a lightweight design and which is comparable to conventional cross-laminated timber panels in terms of strength and other structural properties such as, for example, air tightness, noise absorption, flame retardancy etc., the or at least one middle layer (3) comprises material-free intermediate spaces (4).