An American company has created the “Superlemmn”, a new type of wood which says a resistance-weight ratio up to ten times higher than steel, being up to six times easier, According to CNN.
The “Superlemnul” was recently launched as a commercial product by Inventwood, co -founded by the scientist in the field of Liangbing Hu materials.
More than a decade ago, HU set out to reinvent one of the oldest construction materials known by humanity. While working at the Center for Innovation of Materials of the University of Maryland, the researcher is now a professor at Yale, he has found innovative ways to redesign the wood structure.
From transparent wood, to “Superlemnul”
At one point, Hu even managed to make the wood transparent, but its true objective was to make the wood more resistant, using cellulose, the main component of plant fibers and “the most abundant biopolymer on the planet”.
In 2017, the scientist managed for the first time to strengthen the ordinary wood through a chemical treatment meant to amplify the natural resistance of cellulose, transforming it into a superior construction material.
The process involved boiling the wood in a special solution of water and chemicals, followed by hot pressing to collapse the cellular structure, making it much denser. After a week of treatment, the resulting wood had a resistance-weight ratio “greater than most metals and structural alloys”, according to the study published in Nature magazine.
After years of improvement and over 140 patents deposited, the “Superlemnul” is now commercially available.
Could replace steel in construction
“It looks exactly like wood and, when you test it, it behaves like wood, except that it is much more resistant and better than wood in almost all the aspects we have tested,” explained Alex Lau, CEO of Inventwood.
He says that the “Superlemn” will allow the construction of structures up to four times lighter than the current ones. This means buildings built faster and with higher earthquake resistance.
The new type of wood is now produced by Inventwood in Frederick, Maryland factory. Although the production time has been reduced from days to several hours, it will take some time to increase production.
In the first phase, the company intends to focus on external applications, such as terraces and plating, before moving on to internal applications, such as panels, floors and home furniture, sometime next year.
“People always complain that the furniture is broken over time, and this is often the case because they are deformed or breaking in joints, which are currently made of metal, because the wood is not sufficiently durable,” Lau said. The new type of wood could be used to replace these pieces, said the scientist.
In the near future whole building it could be built from “superletign”, but the material still requires additional tests.
“The construction industry is reluctant”
Inventwood states that its material is up to 20 times more resistant than ordinary wood and up to 10 times more resistant to blows, because the natural porous structure has been compacted and reinforced. This makes it waterproof in fungi and insects. He also obtained the highest qualification in standard fire resistance tests.
Currently, the “super leign” costs more than the usual wood and also has a larger carbon imprint, but its inventor states that compared to the manufacture of steel, carbon emissions are 90% lower. The objective is “not to be cheaper than wood, but to be competitive with steel” when the production will grow, says the teacher from Yale.
Professor Philip Oldfield, an architecture specialist at the University of New South Wales, says that wood has clear ecological advantages. “Wood products can be considered a long -term carbon storage system, and their use in construction could 'block' these emissions in buildings for long periods,” he explained.
However, the teacher states that layered wood products are already competing with steel and concrete. “The problem is not necessarily the lack of resistance, but the fact that the construction industry is reluctant to risks and slowly.”
In the future, to see more wooden buildings, says Oldfield, education, pilot projects and more flexible regulations are needed.
Photo source: dreamstime.com
