The material has 50% more tensile strength than steel with a strength-to-weight ratio that’s ten-times better.
Archived version: https://archive.is/newest/https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/12/inventwood-is-about-to-mass-produce-wood-thats-stronger-than-steel/
Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.
A lot of naysayers in the comments here. Time will tell if the costs and benefits line out to make this useful. I think people don’t realize how everything in engineering is about tradeoffs. No building material is perfect and perfect for the environment, but this is an interesting step. Wood is extremely cheap and can be made sustainably. Even if a polymer is used to reinforce the wood that’s still less non-biological material than would have been used otherwise. I have read some things about this tech and I am interested to see just how well they can scale up production and market this material. If it requires some exotic construction methods to assemble structures with it then we’re probably not going to see wide scale adoption. One potential hurdle is that this material isn’t steel and won’t be a 1 for 1 replacement of steel, but it’s also not wood and won’t be a 1 for 1 replacement for wood, so construction crews and engineers will need specialized training to work with it.
It will probably be a few decades before we see this take off if it’s going to, but I am excited to see what gets done with it. I could see this getting early adoption in what are essentially cookie-cutter structures deployed in low income countries or barn-like buildings for agricultural use. I’m not a civil engineer but my mind immediately goes to using this for structures that would normally use wood, but with less of it. I am also interested in how this stuff degrades over time and stands up to moisture. Perhaps this could be used in piers and docks where steel is expensive and difficult to maintain if it withstands water well.
2 Questions:
Is it as affordable as steel?
How clean is the production process?
- No
- Fuck no.
Disclaimer, I know fuckall about this product, but that seems to be the conclusion every time something like this pops up.
“With some polymer impregnated, it can be stabilized for outdoor use like siding, decking, or roofing”
So first application will be some % plastic?
Imagine dealing with all of this when you tear it down to rebuild something new. Fuck plastic.
Always has been.
Is this the ultra compressed wood that Nile Red was trying to reproduce? Bullet proof wood / Nile Red / YouTube
Cool. High tensile strength and fire resistant.
I’m all for new building materials, but with lots of processing comes lots of polluting. I wonder what the environmental impact of this is vs steel.
That is a good point and I have seen youtube videos on this before and would like to know as well.
It’s just because of all the plastic in it.
That is a concern.
Or when cut the dust causes cancer and pollutes the ground.
Edit: I am listing concerns, not known facts.
Wooden skyscrapers will be the future!
Wood?
we’re focused on skin applications
Seems weird for ultra strong wood, but another property is that it is pretty.
