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It fathom like the hooey of science fabrication , but it actually comes from a research lab in Maryland .
In 2018 , Liangbing Hu , a materials scientist at the University of Maryland , devised a wayto turnordinary woodinto a material stronger than blade . It seemed like yet another headline - grabbing find that would n’t make it out of the science lab .
“ All these the great unwashed come to him , ” said Alex Lau , CEO ofInventWood , “ He ’s like , OK , this is awesome , but I ’m a university prof . I do n’t know quite what to do about it . ”
Rather than give up , Hu spent the next few years refining the engineering , reducing the clip it took to make the fabric from more than a workweek to a few hours . presently , it was ready to commercialize , and he license the technology to InventWood .
Now , the inauguration ’s first batches of Superwood will be produced commence this summertime .
“ powerful now , coming out of this first - of - a - variety commercial-grade plant — so it ’s a smaller plant — we ’re focused on cutis program program , ” Lau said . “ finally we want to get to the bones of the construction . Ninety percentage of the carbon impact from construction is concrete and sword in the construction of the building . ”
To build up the factory , InventWood has raise $ 15 million in the first closing of a Series A round of golf . The cycle was run by the Grantham Foundation with participation from Baruch Future Ventures , Builders Vision , and Muus Climate Partners , the company entirely told TechCrunch .
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InventWood ’s Superwood product starts with unconstipated woodland , which is mostly composed of two compounds , cellulose and lignin . The goal is to strengthen the cellulose already present in the Natalie Wood . “ The cellulose nanocrystal is actually stronger than a carbon paper fibre , ” Lau said .
The company treats it with “ food for thought diligence ” chemical to change the molecular social organization of the wood , he said , and then compresses the result to increase the H bond certificate between cellulose mote .
“ We might densify the fabric by 4x and you might call up , ‘ Oh , it ’ll be four times strong , because it has four times the fiber . ’ But it ’s in reality more like 10 times stronger because of all these extra adhesiveness that get created , ” Lau said .
The solution is a fabric that has 50 % more malleable enduringness than sword with a strength - to - weight unit proportion that ’s 10 times better , the company order . It ’s also Class A flack rated , or extremely resistant to flame , and resistant to rot and pests . With some polymer tincture , it can be stabilized for outdoor use like siding , decking , or roofing . InventWood ’s first intersection will be window dressing cloth for commercial and high-pitched - end residential building , Lau said .
compress the material also focus the color . “ You end up with something that looks like these richer , tropic hardwoods , ” he added .
Ultimately , InventWood is be after to use wood fries to create structural beams of any proportion that wo n’t need stop . “ Imagine your I - beams look like this , ” Lau said , holding up a sample of Superwood . “ They ’re beautiful , like walnut , ipe . These are the instinctive colors . We have n’t stained any of this . ”
