Vigilancia tecnológica

New types of natural fibre-reinforced plastic composites have been available on the market as Wood-Plastic Composite (WPC) façades over the past 10 years. However, WPC cladding is offered as one-dimensional panels only, which limits the design possibilities of creative architects. This Review Paper is about a comprehensive analysis on current research literature about mechanical and physical WPC material criteria. All findings are assessed under the aspect on feasibility of thermoforming flat WPC semi-finished products into three-dimensional elements by means of hot-pressing and subsequent shaping. Hypotheses about expected properties after hot-pressing for two commercially available WPC-formulations with different fibre-content and type of plastics are put forward. These serve as basis for further experimental studies in this field intending to push forward the development of thermally formed WPCs for large-scale applications.