The Department of Wood Processing and Biomaterials (DWPB) was established on 1 August 2018 by merging the Department of Wood Processing (DWP) and the Department of Wood Products and Wood Constructions (DWPWC). Establishment of the new department was a logical consequence of the dynamic development of wood technology study branches at the CZU Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences also in terms of making coordination more effective and interconnecting primarily scientific and research activities of both original departments and the Laboratory of Wood Processing. The newly established department thus responds to the requirements of students and, in particular, to the requirements of practice. It demonstrates the associative process of wood technology subjects and study branches as well as their enhancement at the Faculty.
The objective of the Department of Wood Processing and Biomaterials is to educate future graduates with relatively versatile knowledge, capable of becoming involved in and/or adapting to the broad areas of current activities in the processes of wood processing and utilisation.
Teaching
The Department provides teaching of specialised subjects for Bachelor’s, Master’s and postgraduate study programmes.
The Department’s specialised orientation covers the entire area of wood processing. It focuses on the processes of primary wood processing, while putting emphasis on their significance and linkage to the processes of secondary wood processing. It supports the entire study branch with teaching specialised in production of wood-based constructions, interior design, and product design.
It is a combination of traditional technical-technological timber disciplines aptly supplemented with disciplines responding to the latest trends (e.g. CNC woodworking technology), process engineering, and impacts on business finance and operation.
Scientific and research activities
Research and scientific activities cover an ever broader range of disciplines focusing on material properties, material application in products and structures, degradation effect analyses, chemical processes, and a number of other activities related to the concept of wood and other biomaterials in the human life.
At present, the Department in this area focuses mainly on:
- Monitoring of the effect of properties in the machining process in terms of technical and technological factors in relation to process energy intensity and machined surface quality;
- Optimisation of parameters of machining processes with the prediction of adequate wood utilisation in timber technologies and products;
- Determination of physical and mechanical properties of wood from atypical sites (North Bohemian lignite waste dumps);
- Determination of physical and mechanical properties of wood from introduced tree species;
- Properties and machining of thermally modified wood (Thermowood);
- Creation of new types of composite materials based on wood and non-wood materials with specific properties for the intended use;
- Preparation of mathematical models aimed at creation of materials with specific properties for the intended use.
