Engineers Create Wood 10 Times Stronger, Even Surpassing Titanium Alloys

Written by Valdemar Medeiros

Published on 11/01/2023 at 23:37

Liangbing Hu (à esq.) mostra como a supermadeira é mais densa e comprimida em relação à madeira natural, nas mãos de seu colega Teng Li — Foto: Hua Xie

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U.S. Engineers Developed A Super Strong Wood That Can Easily Replace Steels And Even Titanium Alloys. Besides Being 10 Times Stronger, The Product Is Also 6 Times Lighter.

Engineers from the University of Maryland in the United States developed a method to transform a regular wood into one that is up to 10 times stronger, resulting in a natural product that can be more resilient than steel and even many titanium alloys.

Super Strong Wood Developed By Engineers Can Stop A Bullet

The wood is treated with a very basic technique that involves two stages, resulting in a super strong wood, equivalent to titanium alloys, which are generally not found in nature. A crucial point of this developed wood is that, although it is much stronger than steel, it is still 6 times lighter.

It requires 10 times more energy to break this product compared to an original natural product before treatment. In technical terms, it has 10 times more toughness, the resistance to mechanical stress. Furthermore, the wood in sheets can be bent and shaped at the beginning of the process.

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Possible Uses For The New Wood Developed By Engineers

Besides being a great substitute for steel and titanium alloys, the super strong wood developed by the engineers could also relieve the pressure for the cultivation and extraction of more durable and exotic woods.

Hu states that soft woods, such as balsa or pine, which grow more easily and are more environmentally friendly, could replace the slower, denser forests, like teak, in furniture or buildings. This type of wood could also be used in cars, buildings, airplanes, or any other application where steel is used.

Other Experiments With Enhanced Wood

Engineers from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, in India, developed a new technology last year capable of replacing glass and plastic in the civil engineering and automotive sectors.

Transparent wood can be used in manufacturing car windshields, packaging, and electrical equipment. According to researchers, this innovative material reduces impacts on the environment due to its renewable and biodegradable properties, in addition to being more economical and much stronger than glass and plastic, mitigating the energy cost for its production.

For the lead author of the study and professor of chemical engineering, Prodyut Dhar, transparent wood as a sustainable material can effectively replace plastic and pollutant-based glasses harmful to the environment. Products such as polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, acrylic, and polyethylene can be substituted.

The product first emerged in 1992 by German scientist Siegfried Fink and can be obtained by removing the lignin content, which is present in natural wood, replacing it with plastic materials. This substance is an organic biopolymer widely used in the production of non-toxic, biodegradable plant fabrics.

Engineers Create Wood 10 Times Stronger, Even Surpassing Titanium Alloys

U.S. Engineers Developed A Super Strong Wood That Can Easily Replace Steels And Even Titanium Alloys. Besides Being 10 Times Stronger, The Product Is Also 6 Times Lighter.

Super Strong Wood Developed By Engineers Can Stop A Bullet

Possible Uses For The New Wood Developed By Engineers

Other Experiments With Enhanced Wood

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Engineers Create Wood 10 Times Stronger, Even Surpassing Titanium Alloys

U.S. Engineers Developed A Super Strong Wood That Can Easily Replace Steels And Even Titanium Alloys. Besides Being 10 Times Stronger, The Product Is Also 6 Times Lighter.

Super Strong Wood Developed By Engineers Can Stop A Bullet

Possible Uses For The New Wood Developed By Engineers

Other Experiments With Enhanced Wood

Forget petroleum-based asphalt: a Scottish company transforms 684,000 plastic bottles into one kilometer of road that is 60% more resistant and up to 10 times more durable, and the technology has already started replacing traditional asphalt in more than 30 countries.

With billions in loans, China is rebuilding Nigeria’s railway network from scratch, abandoning the British colonial tracks that have turned to scrap and creating a corridor of over 1,300 km to take the load off the roads of Africa’s largest economy.

Austrian engineers have developed an inflatable concrete technology that transforms flat slabs into domes using only air pressure, eliminating scaffolding and temporary forms, and potentially changing the way bridges, tunnels, and curved roofs are constructed worldwide.

Australia prepares to dredge 96.5 million m³ in Moreton Bay to deepen, widen, and realign channels of the Port of Brisbane, in a project of up to 25 years designed to accommodate larger ships and enhance maritime safety and regional port efficiency.

Study solves great ancient mystery: remains of Philip II, father of Alexander the Great, are identified in Vergina and resolves the enigma of the Macedonian royal tombs that had lasted half a century.

Portugal installs two giant underwater sockets to draw water from the Atlantic and create a €107.9 million desalination plant in the Algarve capable of producing 43.2 million liters of potable water per day with ocean intake 2 km from the coast.

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Christmas trees thrown away become a natural barrier in Alabama, where teams repurpose thousands of pines on the beaches of Gulf Shores to trap sand, rebuild dunes, and protect houses against storms and hurricanes for almost four decades.

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Family has lived for over 50 years without electricity and running water at home in the South of Minas, 10 minutes from the city, improvising light, bath, and water while facing a lack of basic resources and awaiting property regularization.

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