by Kevin Burton
Engineers have created two extraordinary products that made the pages of the Good News Network.
The good news and implications for new and improved consumer products from these more durable materials are just beginning.
We start with the story of “superwood,” written by Andy Corbley.
“New ways to alter the molecular structure of wood have led to a bulletproof, fire resistant, lightweight material that could replace steel, concrete, and carbon fiber.”
“Appropriately dubbed “Superwood,” the applications seem to be limited only by the imagination, and may hold up a high-rise just as sure as it might make better tennis rackets,” Corbley wro0te.
“In 2018, a pioneering materials engineer found a way to take wood scraps that were no longer useable and treat them with heat and chemicals to alter their molecular makeup, according to the Wall Street Journal.
“The boards could then be compressed to the point where the pressure collapses the channels between the lignan that serve as the tree’s circulatory system. This process could take a standard board and render it one-quarter the thickness while retaining the increased strength from the treatment process.”
Alex Lau, CEO of InventWood, the firm that markets Superwood, believes it could replace steel I-beams in houses or even the exterior of a laptop computer—all depending on what machines are available to work the Superwood.
“During a fire, the wood doesn’t sag like steel does at comparable temperatures, nor does it truly burn; the outside carbonizes into an airtight layer before the interior layers of wood feel the heat,” Corbley writes.
Wall Street Journal reporter Christopher Mims said that in his hands the Superwood felt like an “otherworldly object,” due to its combination of lightness and the incredible strength and resistance to lateral force.”
A previous engineering advancement, CLT (cross-laminated timber), also known as “mass timber” is made by gluing exceptionally thin boards of wood together before heat-pressing them, resulting in properties similar to Superwood.
CLT has been used to build the hilariously-named “plyscrapers,” of Scandinavia, as well as a new $2 billion Portland Oregon airport terminal.
“The difference maker in Superwood is its light weight and flexibility in addition to tensile strength and fire-resistance similar to CLT,” Corbley wrote.
Today, InventWood, which amassed $50 million in startup money from a mixture of Dept. of Energy grants and private financing, is bringing Superwood to market with a 90,000-square-foot manufacturing facility. Its initial offerings will be home sidings, which require minimal certifications, but which may be available in many more products in the not-too-distant future.”
Our second story is similar, but involves the use of 3D printing. This story was credited only to GNN staff.
“Engineers from an Australian University have produced a new type of 3D-printed titanium that’s about a third cheaper than commonly used titanium alloys,” the GNN story reads.
“A team of engineers at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) developed the groundbreaking alloy by replacing expensive vanadium with more accessible elements. By rethinking how titanium alloys are designed, the team created a material with improved performance and more uniform microstructure—key factors for aerospace and medical applications.”
“The team has filed a provisional patent on their innovative approach, which has also been outlined in a paper published in Nature Communications.
“The study’s lead author Ryan Brooke, working at the university’s Centre for Additive Manufacturing, will investigate the next steps of commercializing the technology, saying the field of 3D-printed titanium alloys was ripe for innovations.”
“3D printing allows faster, less wasteful and more tailorable production,” Brooke said, “ yet we’re still relying on legacy alloys (like Ti-6Al-4V) that don’t allow full capitalization of this potential. It’s like we’ve created an airplane and are still just driving it around the streets.”
“New types of titanium and other alloys will allow us to really push the boundaries of what’s possible with 3D printing,” Brooke said. “The framework for designing new alloys outlined in our study is a significant step in that direction.”
“Besides being nearly 30 percent cheaper to manufacture, the latest study outlines a time- and cost-saving method to select elements for alloying, providing a clearer path for predicting the grain structure so the metal can print more evenly, avoiding the column-shaped microstructures that lead to uneven mechanical properties in some 3D printed alloys.”
“By developing a more cost-effective formula that avoids this columnar microstructure, we have solved two key challenges preventing widespread adoption of 3D printing,” said Brooke, a PhD candidate.
“He recently talked to aerospace, automotive, and MedTech industry representatives about their needs.”
“What I heard loud and clear from end users was that to bring new alloys to market, the benefits have to not just be minor incremental steps but a full leap forward.”
“That’s what we have achieved here,” he said. “We have been able to not only produce titanium alloys with a uniform grain structure, but with reduced costs, while also making it stronger and more ductile.”
Page 7 