Wood is a renewable raw material that is enjoying increasing popularity. Pleasure in its use outdoors, however, is often of limited duration, the effects of sun and rain soon ruining the appearance of garden furniture, outdoor flooring and bridge elements made of wood.
Working closely with Bayer MaterialScience, Assyx GmbH & Co. KG has developed a solution that is both smart and sustainable. It coats laminated wood with a smooth and fully closed covering of the polyurethane integral skin foam system Baydur®. Unlike solid wood elements, products in the DuroCONSTRUCT® range are weather-resistant and completely maintenance-free. And compared to steel, they are much lighter.
“We offer the elements in various colors, forms and sizes so that they match the architectural design involved,” says Alfred Rochlus, Managing Director of Assyx. “This makes for wide-ranging application potential for garden and park benches, playgrounds, pedestrian bridges and decks.” With its product range, Assyx is attracting the interest of district and municipal authorities, architects and engineers alike, and also of companies and private individuals.
A spectacular example is the product's use as a deck covering on the viewing platform of the Forum Confluentes, a new arts complex in Koblenz's central square. The building designed by Dutch architects Jan Benthem and Mels Crouwel houses the city library and the tourist information center among other facilities. From the roof, visitors have a panoramic view of the city, the Rhine and Mosel valleys and the fortress opposite. But it is also worth taking a look at the roof terrace itself and the robust and weather-resistant DuroCONSTRUCT® elements that form a perfect symbiosis with the design of the building.
It all began with a big challenge
The idea to enclose wooden panels with polyurethane was conceived in 2004. In the search for an alternative to standard base boards for making concrete slabs, Manfred Kessler, the founder of Assyx, contacted Bayer MaterialScience. Concrete slabs are used for gardening and landscaping, and as hollow blocks in construction. They are manufactured under tough conditions in molds weighing several tons on base boards that have to withstand extreme mechanical and chemical loads. The challenge was to design a new type of board characterized by low weight and easy handling that at the same time could be produced cost-effectively in a fully automatic process.
Bayer MaterialScience took on the challenge and supported its partner at all stages – from the generation of the idea through formulation development in the laboratory and implementation in the technical center all the way through to production of the first pilot series. Based on this cooperation Manfred Kessler ultimately established Assyx company. In contrast to competitive products made of sheet steel, steel-reinforced thermoplastics or solid wood, base boards from the DuroBOARD® range meet all the above requirements. A number of technical improvements made to the use of the boards have helped to augment performance in the production of concrete slabs significantly.