FREDERICK, Md. — You wouldn't know it by it unassuming exterior in a nondescript corporate office building, but InventWood is creating a product that can revolutionize the entire building industry.
They're calling it "superwood", a material that maintains 100% wood composition while achieving up to 10 times the strength of steel at just one-sixth of its weight.
Watch as the creators of "superwood" describe how it's stronger than steel
"This product is not only beautiful, it's incredibly durable," said Jonathan Strimling, president of InventWood. "We're making diamonds out of wood. We do use heat and pressure in our process and we wind up with a product that is more dense with greatly enhanced bonding between that already exist in wood."
"It's very beautiful. It's gorgeous actually and it looks very shiny and it's very smooth when you touch it," inventor Professor Liangbing Hu said.
Hu, a physicist, created it inadvertently while conducting research at the University of Maryland. He was looking at a way to create carbon nanoparticles, in part making transparent wood, when he realized mother nature already had the building blocks in trees.
"[It] was not originally planned, but doing research very often you get a surprise result," Hu said.
And along with the extra strength came with some unexpected results.
"It smells really good. Like chocolate," Hu said.
The business, since making the product available commercially in the last few months has been taking off. Strimling says they will produce around one million square feet.
"The demand we're seeing here, is, off the hook. It's far beyond anything I've seen in my life," Strimling said. "We can give people the beauty of wood while also delivering extraordinary durability and even the ability to withstand fire, so even the LA area which has been ravaged by fire we can deliver a solution that meets their fire requirements.”
He says they're hearing interest from architects, automotive manufacturers, aerospace companies and even musical instrument makers. The material is positioned as a lower-carbon alternative to steel and a sustainable replacement for critical materials like aluminum.
The exact manufacturing process remains protected by more than 140 patents. WMAR-2 News visited the facility, but was not allowed to film on the floor due to proprietary concerns.
But WMAR-2 News' Blair Sabol tested out its strength for herself. While it was easy to hammer a block of poplar wood, which becomes the durable product, it was much harder to make a dent in the superwood.
A stick of superwood, Strimling claims, they presented to a Sumo wrestler who couldn't break it.
He joined the company six months ago and describes the experience as having "an opportunity to participate in the Olympics."
“This is a solution that will really scale globally," he said.
Current applications include siding, decks and doors, with even bigger plans on the horizon.
"Longer term our goal is to also go into the bones of the building and replace beams, columns, and other structural elements," Strimling said.
"This is just the beginning of many possibilities and very exciting, I'm also very anxious to see what actually people can use it for," Hu said.
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