Product Code Database
Wood wool, known primarily as excelsior in North America, is a product made of wood slivers cut from logs. It is mainly used in packaging, for cooling pads in home evaporative cooling systems known as , for erosion control mats, and as a raw material for the production of other products such as bonded wood wool boards. In the past it was used as stuffing, or padding, in upholstery, or to fill . It is also sometimes used by taxidermists to construct the armatures of taxidermy mounts.
In England, yet another product known as wood wool was produced by the chemical breakdown of wood strips by means of sulphurous acid, for use in such applications as absorbent material in surgical dressings. Another application of this product was use in sanitary towels, as shown in advertisements from 1885 to 1892 in Britain for "wood wool diapers" or "sanitary wood wool sheets". European "wood wool" was known in America in the late nineteenth century as being distinctly different from excelsior.
Fifteen US patents related to "slivering machines" for producing the small wood shreds "known as excelsior" were listed by 1876. The earliest, a machine for "Manufacturing wood to be used as a substitute for curled hair in stuffing beds" was patented in the US in 1842; however, the product had no specific name when the process was first patented.
The 1868 patent, "Improved capillary material for filling gas and air carburettors", was for a new use for "fibres torn from the wood by suitable machinery" to be "sold and used as filling for mattresses, its commercial name being 'excelsior'." This is the earliest description of the material by this name cited by the Oxford English Dictionary, though the term "excelsior mattress" had appeared in print as early as 1856.
In 1906, the now-common use of wood wool in the cooling pads of evaporative coolers appeared in a patent that stated, "I have found that excelsior makes a very cheap and good material for this purpose."
In the beginning of the 20th century wood wool was used as a raw material for producing wood wool panels in Europe, especially in Austria. By 1930, wood wool cement boards were being widely produced. New strands to the wood wool story Botting, Mike in Wood Based Panels International, June 1, 1997
In the 21st century, wood wool appears in numerous patents for erosion control and sediment control methods and devices; for example, the 2006 "Sediment control device and system". A few late-twentieth-century patents on these uses refer to "excelsior/wood wool". Erosion control blanket and method of, U.S. Patent 5786281, Jul 28, 1998
The US Standard Industrial Classification Index SIC is 2429 for the product "Wood wool (excelsior)". The same term is used by the United States for the external trade number under which wood wool is monitored: HTS Number: 4405.00.00 Description: Wood wool (excelsior); wood flour.
The number 4405.00 is applied to wood wool by the World Customs Organization in the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS). Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS), page 2, 4405.00 wood wool
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In the UK there are specifications for dimensions, pH, moisture content and freedom from dust and small pieces, set by British Standard BS 2548 for wood wool for general packaging purposes. BS 2548 Specification for wood wool for general packaging purposes (British Standard) This standard was originally issued in 1954 and subsequently re-issued in 1986. BS 2548 BSI British Standards
When these fibers are bonded with cement or magnesite, bonded wood wool boards are produced. Slabs of bonded wood wool are considered environmentally friendly construction and insulation materials because they do not contain organic binders. European Commission Research - Industrial Technologies, 15/09/2005
Wood wool can be produced in either horizontal or vertical shredding machines.
A possible further processing option is washing, which removes dust. Wood-wool processing may involve drying to reduce moisture in compliance with local requirements, as in the UK.
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