Men are making panels from pine needles

"I have always wanted to do something natural," says Margus Siilik, who is the author of the idea for these peculiar wall panels and the founder of OÜ Okkastyle. "However, pine needles are an already existing material that does not need to be produced."

Rolling the idea further and experimenting with needles, he developed a technology that allows pine needles to be glued together into an airy panel several centimeters thick. For example, spruce needles are not suitable for this because they are too small.

Thorns from RMK cutting boards

The pine board looks very decorative and looks like a piece of nature in the office. Thanks to the airiness of the decorative panel, an acoustic panel was also developed, which also uses sheep wool felt and linen cloth.

"Such a multi-layer panel absorbs more sound," explains Siilik. He went to the Fraunhofen institute in Germany to measure the properties of the acoustic board, and the result was the highest sound absorption class, or A. This kind of wall panel effectively reduces echo and noise in, for example, an open office.

In order to obtain needles, the man has an agreement with RMK, whose cutting logs produce half-meter pine branches. Young people with intellectual disabilities from the village of Maarja were hired to pick clean and high-quality thorns from the branches. "I had contact with Maarja küla before, and now we are very satisfied with the cooperation from both sides," admits Margus Siilik.

Thorns are picked, dried, impregnated with fireproofing and then dried again. "If you want to make a product for public spaces, very strict fire safety requirements apply," he explains. Natural adhesives and dyes are used in the production of panels.

There is also a plan to export

Now that the raw materials and technology are available, the biggest concern is how to find customers. The Ajujaht entrepreneurship competition helped here, where Okkastyle reached the top five last year. Participation in the competition also brought one of the first major clients - the Estonia Spa Hotel in Pärnu ordered a decorative panel made of pine needles for the spa reception wall.

"At first I did it on the side of other work, but now it's my main job," says Siilik, who used to do electrical work. Five people are employed in the company that manufactures pine needles panels under the Okka brand, but since it is a manual job, additional manpower has to be hired since the beginning of the year. The plan is also to export.

"We want to look even further, where the eco-product is more expensive and the target group is also larger," says the company's founder. "Southern Estonia's forests are completely sufficient to cover the need for raw materials. Pine needles change every two years, so they keep growing.”

Worth knowing

The minimum thickness of the decorative panel is 3.5 cm and its square meter weighs 7 kg. It is possible to make panels up to 10 cm thick.

The maximum thickness of the acoustic panel is 11.5 cm and its square meter weighs 14 kg. The panels can be framed with a heat-treated wooden frame or an aluminum frame. At the same time, they can also be installed on the wall without a frame.