[Levin]

https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/12/invent...han-steel/

[Levin]

In 2018, Liangbing Hu, a materials scientist at the University of Maryland, devised a way to turn ordinary wood into a material stronger than steel.

......

Hu 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.

......

The company treats it with “food industry” chemicals to modify the molecular structure of the wood, he said, and then compresses the result to increase the hydrogen bonds between cellulose molecules.

“We might densify the material by 4x and you might think, ‘Oh, it’ll be four times strong, because it has four times the fiber.’ But it’s actually more like 10 times stronger because of all these extra bonds that get created,” Lau said.

The result is a material that has 50% more tensile strength than steel with a strength-to-weight ratio that’s 10 times better, the company said. It’s also Class A fire rated, or highly resistant to flame, and resistant to rot and pests.

[sgbuffett]

Some.explanation here basically squash the qood until very dense

[Levin]

Some.explanation here basically squash the qood until very dense

Good find. This is InventWood's core product called MettleWood.

[Tangsen]

In 2018, Liangbing Hu, a materials scientist at the University of Maryland, devised a way to turn ordinary wood into a material stronger than steel.

......

Hu 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.

......

The company treats it with “food industry” chemicals to modify the molecular structure of the wood, he said, and then compresses the result to increase the hydrogen bonds between cellulose molecules.

“We might densify the material by 4x and you might think, ‘Oh, it’ll be four times strong, because it has four times the fiber.’ But it’s actually more like 10 times stronger because of all these extra bonds that get created,” Lau said.

The result is a material that has 50% more tensile strength than steel with a strength-to-weight ratio that’s 10 times better, the company said. It’s also Class A fire rated, or highly resistant to flame, and resistant to rot and pests.

Another chinese scientist

[red3]

Wow... No horse run

[Niubee]

Wooden EV car next ?

[Sentinel]

Stewpig idea to use on normal timber wood

How do you saw such a wood then?

What about preservation of the forests?

It still has a low burning point, unlike steel

Should just use the tech on bamboo, which grows super fast and by itself, it is already tensile strong

[Levin]

Wooden EV car next ?

Umm, possible since they can do all sorts of 3-D shapes with their pressing technology (from the video) and it is cheaper than steel but kind of doubtful that a wooden car would happen.

[Napoleon Porlumpar]

the Germans came up with Tankwood long ago..............maybe too expensive..............or too difficult to work with

[red3]

But still cannot beat the melting point of steel ... so the fire hazard remains even though it is hard as steel .. it will turn to charcoal and ash before the steel wilt

[WhatDoYouThink!]

Another invention which has not much use for now