Karl Mahnert: Cocowood networker, researcher and trainer.

Karl’s title ‘Technical Assistant’ barely covers his colourful contribution to the project which revolves around three main areas: networking, research and training. Karl plays a pivotal role in the project, summing up this function as ‘informing and sharing’.

Karl is building networks between the project partners, collaborators and interest groups to keep cocowood information flowing. Since arriving in Australia in 2007, he has been busy drumming up interest in the project and motivating new collaborators like Boral and Dale Glass Industries to join the project.

With funding from the ATSE Crawford Fund, he ran a successful training workshop for industry partners in Fiji and Samoa, held at the Utilisation Division and Timber Training Industry Training Centre in Nasinu, Fiji, in September 2007. The workshop delivered insights to coconut wood properties and best practice in primary processing for the high value cocowood industry. Particular focus was given to how differences between cocowood and other timbers like hardwoods mean that treatment processes also have to be different.

Karl hopes that the workshop will help to establish a sustained network of industry folk, extending throughout the whole supply chain from the log resource, treating, drying, transport and processing, particularly for producing boards.

A student with the Institute of Wood Biology and Wood Technology, University of Gottingen, Karl’s research work is contributing to his Masters thesis in coconut wood anatomy. In 2007 and 2008 he will be working with DPI&F scientists in Brisbane on the cocowood project.

He is looking at the links between the wood structure and some important properties linked to problems in the processed wood. In particular, he is interested in how the arrangement of vascular bundles might affect shrinkage properties. He recently completed a preliminary evaluation of gluability in relation to shear strength and reports that high density cocowood has potential for use as glued sections.

Karl is stimulated by the insights and challenges of applied science for this new timber. Outcomes he wants to see from the project include sustained communication networks across the industry and Pacific countries – keeping key messages about cocowood as a flooring timber alive.