Sébastien Deschamps is a leading French specialist in heat-treated wood.He is the Director of Bois Durable de Bourgogne (Burgundy Sustainable Wood’), a company with three ovens for the thermal modification of wood. “In our company, we use a heating system called Thermoprocess. This technique f rom Finland, with the trademark ThermoWood, takes place in four distinct phases, with treatment lasting between 30 and 60 hours.” In order to dry planks to 0 percent humidity, they first have to be subjected to a rapid increase in temperature, explains the technician.Thermal treatment of the wood then takes place during the second phase,with the air temperature reaching 220°Cin the oven, over two hours.This is where the internal modification.

This is where the internal modification of the wood takes place. The temperature is then dropped, by a cooling process using water vapour and monitoring of temperatures right to the heart of the wood in order to avoid splitting. The last phase adjusts the final humidity of the wood using rehumidification, bringing the planks to a humidity level of 5 percent. “We use Jartek ovens from Finland, each with a capacity of 20m3, and at no point do we use any chemical products.” Sébastien Deschamps adds that Bois Durable de Bourgogne allocates a class risk category of 3 to seven different products: ash, beech, poplar, oak and Douglas fir with or without sapwood. Other species (spruce, pine) complete the company‘s range of cladding, decking, garden furniture, flooring and layouts.
“We are currently employing a scientist Ash, a fashionable heat-treated wood (Photo by French Timber)) Sébastien Deschamps, Technical Manager at BoisDurable de Bourgogne (Photo by French Timber)in order to obtain the certification to sellour pro-ducts as class 4, for exteriorproducts constantly exposed to humidity,”confirms the Technical Manager. TheFédération Nationale du Bois (FrenchNational Wood Federation) has asked theFCBA for an assessment in order to certify oak, beech, ash, poplar and chestnut cladding and decking as class 4.(French Timber)