Now Available: Wood That's Stronger Than Steel
- Editor OGN Daily
- 13 hours ago
- 1 min read
It may sound like the stuff of science fiction, but it originated from a lab in Maryland.
In 2018, a materials scientist at the University of Maryland, devised a way to turn ordinary wood into a material stronger than steel. It seemed like yet another headline-grabbing discovery that wouldn’t make it out of the lab.
He then spent the next few years refining the technology, reducing the time it took to make the material from more than a week to a few hours. Soon, it was ready to commercialize, and he licensed the technology to InventWood. “All these people came to him,” said Alex Lau, CEO of InventWood, “He’s like, OK, this is amazing, but I’m a university professor. I don’t know quite what to do about it.”
Without going into the rather complicated process of producing the 'Superwood', the key point is that it has 50 percent more tensile strength than steel, with a strength-to-weight ratio that’s 10 times better, says InventWood. It’s also Class A fire rated, or highly resistant to flame, and resistant to rot and pests. With some polymer impregnated, it can be stabilized for outdoor use like siding, decking, or roofing.
Another bonus is that compressing the material also concentrates the colours. “You end up with something that looks like these richer, tropical hardwoods,” says Lau.
Ultimately, InventWood is planning to use wood chips to create structural beams of any dimension that won’t need finishing. “Imagine your I-beams look like this,” Lau said, holding up a sample of Superwood. “They’re beautiful, like walnut, ipe. These are the natural colours. We haven’t stained any of this.”