In 1970, Professor Roffael took up the position of a scientist at the Fraunhofer Institute for Wood Research WKI in Braunschweig. Here, together with senior engineer Lutz Mehlhorn, he laid the foundations for researching and testing the formaldehyde release of particleboards and other wood-based materials. He was equally successful in dealing with questions concerning gluing and manufacturing of wood-based materials.
In 1993, Professor Roffael was appointed university professor at the Georg-August University of Göttingen. As head of the Department of Wood Chemistry and Wood Technology of the Institute of Wood Biology and Wood Technology of the Faculty of Forest Sciences and Forest Ecology, he and his staff worked on numerous research projects, including several AiF projects supported by the iVTH, also in co-operation with the Fraunhofer WKI.
Even after his retirement from lectureship, he still remained enthusiastically involved in scientific work and continued to publish a large number of scientific articles as well as a book on the subject of formaldehyde.
