At Essetre, we have been in the woodworking industry for decades: our working centres are ideal for the production of different elements used in construction, furniture, industry and others. Today we would like to share with you the latest trends and forecasts for the wood-furniture market.

We collected some data* to give you a complete overview. [*Fordaq data]

How was the first quarter of 2023?

In this period, the wood-furniture sector recorded sales for a total of EUR 2.5 billion.

The furniture sector, which represents more than 60% of total sales, recorded +3.2%. Sales increased both in the Italian market (+5.3%) and in the export market (+1.3%). However, it is important to note that this positive change is mainly influenced by price increases and less by an actual increase in volumes.

On the other hand, the wood macrosystem recorded a decrease of -10.5% compared to the same quarter of 2022. Sales in the Italian market decreased by -12.4%, while in international exports the contraction was -4.7%.

Would you like more information about our working centres to process panels, surfaces and tops? click here!

How are the prospects for 2024? Positive!

In the future, furniture is expected to grow by +5% overall. Exports will perform better (+7.5%), while Italy will grow by +3.2%.

Despite the difficulties of 2023 in the wood sector, the Italian association FederlegnoArredo sees the future with optimism. In fact, for 2024 the wood macrosystem is expected to improve with positive exports at +4.7%.

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Challenges and opportunities for this year.

Made in Italy is therefore still an element of strength that Italian companies could use to their advantage for a sustained recovery.

Interesting for us at Essetre is also another theme: the website buildnews.it states that “even in 2023, the world of wood and wood-based technologies continues to boast an excellent performance in terms of trade balance, with a surplus of 1,665 million euro, 9.3 per cent more than in 2022; certainly one of the most significant results in the entire galaxy of machine tool production and an important contribution to the national data”.

If you would like to learn more about our NC woodworking centres or if you have any questions regarding our services, please do not hesitate to contact us. We are here for you and together we can create solutions specifically customised to your needs.

 Please contact us for a personal advice. Contact us!

The promotion of quality wood opens the door to a truly sustainable future.

The cities of tomorrow require a radical transformation, a harmonious balance between economic progress and environmental protection. In this perspective, energy efficiency and green building emerge as fundamental pillars to improve our living and working environment.

Wood construction, people talk about it more and more!

Efficiency and sustainability are two issues that are also at the centre of the European debate: “green houses” become the protagonists of a prerogative, the basis of a future that promotes the renovation of buildings with a high ecological impact and the construction of new structures that help to protect the environment and our lives.

The key to a sustainable future: quality wood.

Sustainable building has been an issue for years on an international level, also thanks to the New European Bauhaus, promoted by European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen and supporting the cause. This project has a clear objective: to discover new ways of living in the cities of the future, promoting natural materials such as wood.

Increasing the use of quality wood in construction is fundamental, since only a small percentage of the materials used in European buildings is currently wood.

It is necessary to prepare the workforce for this transition to sustainable materials and encouraging the development of new skills is essential, with construction professionals capable of processing this raw material.

Techno Fast is our most popular machine for wood construction, but there are many others? Click here!

Sustainable forest management: protecting the raw material for the future.

Although the request for wood is growing, it is essential to ensure sustainable forest management in order to preserve this natural material for future generations.

The work is long and the commitment significant, but in recent years progress has been truly remarkable, thanks in part to many companies that have invested in the enterprise.

Offsite construction: towards higher efficiency and quality.

Offsite construction, in other words the prefabrication of components in-house for subsequent assembly on site, is an ideal solution that optimises resources and meets ESG standards. This reduces construction time and provides cost certainty: this practice ensures better quality and performance.

Essetre: your partner in sustainable building.

Essetre working centres are at the core of this revolution, as they offer high performance and quality, production efficiency and results beyond expectations, in a sector that is growing and demands punctuality, reliability and innovation for the aforementioned reasons.

We are ready to support you in your business with free consultations and quotations.

Contact us to find out more about our working centres and what we can do for you!

With two Essetre NC working centres, the company Paterno Daniel located in Zugliano (Italy), which has specialised in woodworking since 1920, has been among our most loyal customers for many years.

The owner Daniel tells us in a short interview how Essetre working centres have revolutionised their way of working.

In 2015 the choice that improved production!

“I consulted several suppliers and decided to give Essetre my trust.”

So the owner of Paterno bought the first working centre, Techno PF, which, given its excellent performance as well as improved quality and reduced times in production, led to a second purchase.

Watch the full interview!

But why choose Essetre working centres?

“From manual work we have moved to sophisticated software, 3D design, a speed that has finally reduced production time,” Daniel Paterno continues. “With the Essetre working centres, we can see problems in advance, plan the installation, and deliver a perfect product to the customer. And also, with the new Essetre software, we now know how much material we have to produce and can plan the purchase of raw material.”

What about the service?

Daniel confirms the decision to have us as a business partner: “with remote assistance I can solve any problems in record time and the company is always available with its staff: expectations have been met and our customers also prove this by increasing their requests”.

The best reference is the satisfaction of our customers.

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To ensure the efficiency and durability of a wooden structure, it is imperative not only to take advantage of the positive properties of the material, but also to protect against those properties that could be considered negative.

The equipment and machinery you use to work with wood are also important, so we recommend that you always refer to professionals.

The positive properties of wood.

The most recognised characteristics of wood include its compressive and especially tensile strength (considering the direction of the grain), and elasticity.

Anomalies and defects.

Analysing the properties of wood, however, becomes complex, particularly when dealing with tensile strength, due to the natural anomalies and defects such as knots, ringshake, deviated grain and shrinkage cracks. In fact, we should remember that wood is an organic material and therefore perishable, as well as being subject to its anisotropy.

Previous and current joints.

Joints used to be made with expedients such as slots, wedges and pegs, but wood-only joints present continuous challenges, mainly due to the passage of time and use. The planar processing, for example, prefers polyhedral geometries, generating areas of stress concentration and structural weakening.

To overcome these challenges, it is fundamental to operate during processing by “smoothing the joints”.

The use of CAD technology and numerically controlled working centres allows joints to be virtually designed, avoiding stress concentrations.

Constraints and connections.

In the context of wooden structures, it is almost impossible to achieve an interlocking constraint. The assumption of a hinge type constraint requires considerations of possible rotations, compatible with the actual rotation possibilities of the connection.

The ‘infinitely rigid’ connections can be approached with the use of wood glues. Changes in humidity can cause stresses in the joint, while the overlapping of wooden elements with different grain directions can generate stresses and cracks.

Carpentry knots.

Also known as connections between wooden components, knots transmit stresses through surface contact and work in compression, shear and tension.

The evaluation of the reduction in strength due to fibre permeation requires attention, especially when using trusses with beveled edges (“Uso Fiume”).

Meeting the challenges in structural timber connections requires a careful approach and the use of innovative technologies, as optimising joints helps to create functional and durable structures.

[This is the second part of the article you can find here.]

If you need advice on how our working centres can help in your projects, our technicians and sales staff are at your disposal. Contact us!

Are you a designer or another professional in the timber construction sector? Then this article might be of interest to you.

We will try to make an analysis based on our experience in the field and focused on numerically controlled working centres (CNC) and joints between wooden components forming joining systems, outlining the limitations.

Numerically controlled working centres: a revolution in the industry.

Technological progress over the last decade has brought significant improvements in CNC woodworking centres. The use of advanced calculation programmes and CAD-CAM, interfaced with CNC machines, has made the virtual design of efficient joints for wooden structures possible. This innovation not only simplifies the design process, but also reduces errors during processing.

Visit our working centres page: click here!

Joint optimisation and numerical control: a strategic combination.

Joints and carpentry knots require special attention, considering their ideal static behaviour and possible degradation over time.

As an organic material, wood presents inherent challenges related to its anisotropy and perishability. Therefore, the design of joints has to take these factors into consideration, while looking for innovative solutions to ensure efficiency and durability.

Knowledge gained from construction studies has revealed us the fundamental importance of edge-free joints, where stress concentrations generally tend not to occur or are greatly reduced.

Accepting challenges and winning them with new technologies.

Today, this can be achieved thanks to the possibility of processing surfaces, also of complex geometry, using CAD software, creating a fundamental link with mechanics through numerically controlled working centres.

CAD optimised joints, with particular attention to edge smoothing, can be effectively realised using a properly designed, equipped and managed CNC, with the guarantee of meeting design limitations.

The integration of working centres with fully integrated software in the industry’s most popular CAD systems enables virtual simulation of processes in advance. This, after verification, contributes significantly to ensure the accuracy of operations before their actual execution, with significant benefits in terms of productivity, cost control and quality of work.

The designer who is aware of these possibilities can raise the level of complexity and innovation of his own structural works, taking full advantage of the potential offered by modern woodworking technologies through computerised machines.

Follow us to read the second part of the article!

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Among the many new developments in the wood industry, we found this important news about the future of batteries: will it really be possible to make anodes from wood?

Certainly it would be an important innovation to make our future more sustainable, because the material from which these anodes are made comes mainly from wood scraps. Let’s see some more information together.

A new material made from wood shavings and sawdust to reduce CO2 emissions.

The battery industry is searching for innovative solutions to deal with the growing request for graphite, which is fundamental for the production of today’s anodes.

An interesting development comes from the Finnish-Swedish giant Stora Enso, a global producer of cellulose pulp and paper, in collaboration with the battery manufacturer Northvolt and the company CarbonScape, which is specialised in reducing CO2 emissions related to anode production. These companies have joined forces to develop ‘biographite’, a new material made from by-products of forestry and wood processing, such as shavings., sawdust and other waste.

The revolutionary potential of lignin for new batteries.

Lignin, a by-product from the production of cellulose fibre, is a renewable and traceable resource, and is the residue from the wood processing process.
Lignin, which is present in about 30% of trees, is mainly composed of carbon. This element is an ideal material for making the anode, a vital component in batteries. Unlike conventional lithium-ion batteries that use graphite, lignin works in a similar way, anchoring cellulose fibres together.

But is using lignin good for the planet and our technological development?

Stora Enso has identified five key advantages of this lignin-based renewable energy. These include:

• scalability (the availability of resources is really wide),
• sustainability through certification of the European forests from which the material is obtained,
• renewability that removes the reliance on Chinese battery production,
• the fastest recharge
• and better performance at lower temperatures, opening up new perspectives for the electric vehicle sector.

Italy and research on the use of lignin in batteries.

In 2022, an Italian research team, led by the Polytechnic of Milan, published a revolutionary document on the use of lignin in battery electrolytes. This component, placed between the cathode and the anode, plays a crucial role facilitating the flow of electrochemical ions, while preventing electron rebound and thus helping to improve the overall performance of batteries.

Will it be the era of the biographite?

This bio-based material represents a sustainable alternative to both directly mined natural graphite and synthetic graphite, which is derived from the processing of hydrocarbons.

After seven years of research, CarbonScape has developed an efficient production method for biographite that is currently patented.

Biographite would save 30 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of material compared to synthetic or mined graphite.

Since graphite is approximately 30% of a battery, the introduction of biographite could significantly reduce overall emissions from the industry. It is estimated that the potential reduction of CO2 released into the atmosphere could reach almost 90 million tonnes per year by 2030.

Wood, what a wonder: a protagonist in our company is also a protagonist in the future of the planet!

Would you be interested in learning more about our woodworking centres? Contact us!

What are SIP panels? A versatile and convenient construction option for housing needs. What about frame walls? Let’s find out together the information and advantages of these structural elements and how our working centres are involved in their manufacture. 

SIP: an affordable and solid choice. 

SIP panels, or structural insulated panels, are a widespread construction solution in North America and Russia. In Italy, however, this technology is still not well known (preference is given to X-Lam or frame systems), but its use is increasing.  

The distinctive feature of SIP panels is their sandwich composition, which uses expanded polystyrene and wood flake slabs. This combination allows construction costs to be cut by up to 30%, while offering considerable static and seismic resistance. 

Building efficiency is guaranteed thanks to the prefabrication of the panels, that are ready for assembly.

The frame: a strong, insulated structure. 

Frame walls are a construction method in which the bearing timber structure is integrated with stiffening and curtain wall elements.

They provide solidity and insulation.  

The structure, consisting of twin-laminated wooden beams and posts, is covered with insulation materials such as rock wool, wood fibre or cork. Coat insulation ensures comfort in all seasons and excellent energy performance. 

Techno Multiwall: a solution for woodworking in the construction industry. 

Our Techno Multiwall is a strong and flexible NC working centre designed to process curved beams, X-Lam/CLT walls, SIPS walls and frame walls up to 6000 millimetres in width, 480 millimetres in thickness and unlimited length.

 There are other working centres designed for this type of structure: click here!

Timber construction, the future. 

Italy is third in Europe for the production of timber houses and the market is growing strongly (reaching a value of almost EUR 1.8 billion in 2021).

Wood is experiencing a real renaissance in the building industry, and construction types such as frame and X-Lam (or Cross-Lam or CLT) were introduced on the Italian market, and are achieving excellent post-application results.

Therefore, natural and environmentally sustainable buildings represent the future and we at Essetre are proud to be part of it with our working centres, which contribute to their realisation. 

Would you like more information about our woodworking machines? 

Please do not hesitate to contact us: our sales and technical staff are at your disposal!

Among the working centres we design and manufacture at Essetre, Techno Saw is a machine specifically designed to cut and process trusses, framework house elements and also light and solid wood beams.

But what is the difference between these two types of wood?

We will explain it below: read more!

Processing wooden beams is also an art.

And for this reason, it requires machines that are not only precise, but also able to withstand large amounts of work. Yes, because timber construction is a sector that is growing both in Italy and worldwide. Wooden beams fall into two main categories: solid wood and glulam. Let’s discover them in detail.

Not only Techno Saw: discover the other working centres designed for people working in timber construction!

Solid wood: an all natural elegance.

Solid wood beams are a natural work of art. They are subjected to a drying process that preserves them from mould and bacteria, before being processed to make them weather- and insect-resistant.

Finally, the aesthetic is enhanced with customised paints and colours.

Solid wood is known for its beauty and strength. Each piece is unique, but has some dimensional limitations. It may show little cracks and imperfections due to its nature, but in most cases these features increase its aesthetic value.

Glulam: lightweight and stability.

Glulam beams are created by joining selected boards that are horizontally glued together. This process allows the creation of pieces with different sizes and shapes, without architectural limits. This material, artificially created from a natural base, is known for its stability and smooth structure. It is without the characteristic imperfections of solid wood, which may make it appear less aesthetically distinctive. However, its versatility is a great advantage.

Solid wood or glulam?

These types of wood are the main types used in the construction sector.

Knowing their advantages and disadvantages, as well as their aesthetics, is useful to make the right choice when projecting buildings for residential, industrial or commercial use.

The professionals in the sector, well-known to us at Essetre, play a decisive role in the processing of wooden beams. For this reason, we continue to invest in the development of better and better technologies to simplify their production and achieve more precise results in the shortest possible time.

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