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Substiwood™
- Concrete Lumber
The Need
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In the United States, wood lumber products have
always formed the primary (and secondary) elements of many types of construction,
especially in the single-and multi-family housing sector. A huge segment of the U.S.
economy (on the order of 7 to 8 billion U.S. dollars per year in single-family housing
alone) revolves around the common wood framing systems for walls (2x4’s or
2x6’s) and floors (2x10's, etc.). However, with the growth of the economy, the
dwindling forest resources, and the emerging significance of global environmental issues
such as the greenhouse effect, a need to re-assess the widespread use of wood lumber
products has emerged. |
Substiwood™ |
The Technology
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A new cementitious material, 'concrete lumber'
products (Substiwood™) developed by Substiwood Inc. is
structurally strong, durable, nailable with conventional screws and nails, and sawable
using hand or electric saws. Unlike other construction alternatives to wood framing, the
Substiwood™
products essentially maintain the existing wood frame construction methods, processes,
equipment, and skilled labor. They also minimize changes to the existing plumbing,
electrical, and insulation procedures, materials and equipment used in wood frame
construction. |
Sawable Substiwood™using hand saws |
| Substiwood™ products include two basic grades of
"structural" and "non-structural", and a number of sub-categories
within each grade. As a minimum, the allowable stresses for the structural grade
products meet or exceed the corresponding allowable stresses for the STUD grade wood
lumber commonly used in construction. Substiwood™ products allow the existing methods
and tools of wood frame construction (including plumbing, electrical work, etc.) to remain
essentially unchanged while replacing wood lumber with an environment-friendly
cementitious material based product. 
Flexural load test in 16 inch span
length |
The Benefits
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- Can be made in a great variety of colors, sizes and shapes
including all dimensional lumber sizes.
- Not affected by common wood defects such as knots, bowing,
etc.
- Not susceptible to termites or rotting.
- Excellent strength (flexural, compressive and shear)
properties to serve as structural members and can be considered as lightweight concrete.
- Are sawable using hand or electric saws and also can be
drilled.
- Could make available the highly-efficient wood-frame housing
in areas of the world not possessing forest resources (such as desert areas).
- Environment friendly.
- Offer new possibilities regarding pre-fabricated panels for
assembly at the building site.
- Can be utilized in a variety of applications including
framing, fencing, decking, landscaping timbers, playground structures, railroad
ties, etc.
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Status
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Substiwood, Inc. was formed in 1999 to
produce, market and license a series of patent-pending cementitious material based
products that replace wood lumber in construction and other applications. The company plans to begin commercial production of Substiwood for
non-structural applications by approximately the end of 2000. |
Barriers
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Due to extensive and lengthy processes of
independent testing and code approvals for
structural (framing) applications of these products, the initial emphasis of the company
is being focused on production and marketing for non-structural applications such as
landscaping timbers, fencing, etc. However, work on the process of acquiring the necessary
code approvals for structural applications will continue. |
Points of Contact
- Firouzeh Keshmiri, President, Substiwood Inc., P.O. Box
320277, Franklin,
WI 53132, Tel:(414) 304-1510, Fax:(414) 304-1505. E-mail:
keshmiri@substiwood.com
References
- Substiwood Inc. <http://www.substiwood.com/>
Disclaimer Statement
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Neither the Construction
Industry Institute nor Purdue University in any way endorses this
technology or represents
that the information presented can be relied upon without further investigation. |
SL29 |
