By John Ogunsemore
A US-based company has developed a chemically engineered wood product called Superwood that it says has up to 10 times the strength-to-weight ratio of steel while being up to six times lighter.
InventWood, a Maryland company co-founded by materials scientist Liangbing Hu, announced the product's launch this week after more than a decade of research.
Hu's team first made a breakthrough in the research that produced the product in 2017, when he was still a researcher at the University of Maryland's Center for Materials Innovation.
The innovation was first detailed in a 2018 study published in the journal NatureIt involves chemically treating ordinary wood to remove lignin, a natural polymer, and then compacting it at the cellular level to densify the remaining cellulose fibers.
The result is a material that is up to 20 times stronger than regular wood, 10 times more resistant to dents and impervious to fungi, insects, rot and moisture, while maintaining fire rating A for greater safety, InventWood CEO Alex Lau said in a statement about the product's commercial launch.
Lau said: “Superwood shows what is possible when we combine nature’s most advanced structure with revolutionary science.”
Regarding the composition of the product, he explained: “From a chemical and practical point of view, it is wood. It looks exactly like wood, and when you test it, it behaves like wood, except that it is much stronger and better than wood in virtually all aspects that we tested.”
The company, which secured $15 million in Series A funding earlier this year, began commercial production at its Frederick, Maryland, facility in July.
Lau revealed that while production time is now measured in hours rather than days, scaling up would take time as initial shipments would focus on exterior applications such as siding and decking.
Interior applications such as wall coverings, flooring and furniture components are expected to be introduced next year.
“People always complain about furniture breaking over time, and this is often because it sags or breaks at the joints, which are currently made of metal because wood is not strong enough,” he said.
According to him, Superwood could be used to replace these parts as well as screws, nails and other metal fasteners.
He said further testing would be carried out to examine the possibility of constructing an entire building from Superwood.