Engineered Wood Advances with Two New Products

Engineered wood, as a product category, took two bold and unique steps this summer that can increase uses for lower-quality timber that has become more available in the U.S. in recent years.

Step one:

Weyerhaeuser Corporation, one of the world’s largest forest landowners, broke ground in June on a facility in Monticello, Arkansas, to manufacture “Timberstrand”. This is the company’s product for homebuilding uses, to be made from curved and small-diameter trees not strong or straight enough on their own to be of value as conventional lumber products.

Weyerhaeuser cites tall walls, beams, rim board, and sill plates as conventional products that can be a fit for Timberstrand.

They expect the new plant to be operational in two years and credit the Arkansas state government for helping to move the future 200-worker plant through the planning and approval phase.

Step Two:

Inventwood of Frederick, Maryland, expects to begin to sell “Superwood” this summer.

It promotes this manufactured product as being stronger than steel and rot, pest, and fire resistant. The product is said to be made stronger by a chemical process that makes the wood five times denser.

This molecular transformation involves removing lignin from the wood through a chemical bath (the details of which are proprietary) and pressure applied to the wood material. The remaining cellulose fiber is bonded in the process, strengthening it greatly.

Superwood was a product of research by Lianghing Hu at the Center for Materials Innovation at the University of Maryland. He is now a professor at Yale University.

Inventwood sees potential siding and decking products as a fit for Superwood.