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So it's fiberglass except it uses thin strips of bleached wood in place of the glass fiber substrate? Also, being lighter than glass (presumably by unit volume
by jandrese 6y ago
So it's fiberglass except it uses thin strips of bleached wood in place of the glass fiber substrate?
Also, being lighter than glass (presumably by unit volume?) is a pretty low bar. Glass is heavy. "Stronger" is so vague it's almost meaningless. Stronger under tension? Compression? Flex? Impact resistance? What?
- andylynch 6y agoThis is a clever variation on impregnation resins, which aren’t now and are getting more and more popular. It will depend on the timber and treatment, but expect higher tensile & compressive strength then the wood, plus more hardness and stability. This would be very interesting for structural windows and likely much cheaper than glass in similar size. Probably better thermal insulation too.
- craftinator 6y agoI'd worry about the effects of UV on the resins, if replacing windows with it. Would likely need a coating to prevent discoloration.
- andrew_ 6y agoNot only discoloration but general structural degradation of the material.
- ooboe 6y agoSeveral mechanical properties are discussed in the published paper: https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/7/5/eabd7342 https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/7/5/eabd7342
- dzhiurgis 6y agoI'll also add that marine epoxy is pretty nasty stuff, although there has been innovations there too.