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INSIGHT Virginia Tech - Virginia Chip Frazier, associate professor of wood science and forest products at Virginia Tech, is working to advance technology used in composite materials, which he says offers an ability to use timber resources more efficiently. "To optimize efficiency in the use of our timber resources, we have to learn as much as we can about the adhesive bonding that allows the use of composite materials," Frazier says. "Adhesion is one key to meeting building needs. "Composites are made from trees that were previously considered undesirable because of their small size or natural defects. But when these trees are reduced to small particles, slivers or strands and then reconsolidated with adhesive, they can be as strong or even stronger than solid wood." According to Frazier, the design strength of composites is greater than the design strength of solid wood. "Composite materials have no major flaws like knots, because knots are chipped up and redistributed throughout the composite. Consequently, composite materials have more uniform properties, which is why the design strengths are often higher than for solid wood," he says. A grant from the Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station is helping to support Frazier's work to understand the performance of the adhesives used to make wood-based composites. He and his associates are studying the molecular structures and motions in the adhesive interphase, that area in the bondline that is neither wood nor adhesive, but a combination of both. They then will correlate that molecular information with durability. For more information, contact Netta Benton, 540-231-7638. Did you find this material interesting? Do you want more information of this type? Comment via FEEDBACK
Source: Copyright American Society of Agricultural Engineers May 2002
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