Im not too surprised. The strength of plywood is well known in aero and racing circles. For parts like stringers plywood is used instead of fiberglass when higher stiffness is required.<p>Plywood is similar strength/weight as fiberglass which isn't too far off from carbon fiber.<p>The issue with all popular composite materials like fiberglass, carbon fiber, and plywood is that their strength is highly directional. It takes a lot of skill and testing to make sure your part is strong enough in all directions force will be applied.<p>There's some omnidirectional "mat" type materials you can get easily for fiberglass but you exchange the directional strength of weave for a non-directional but overall inferior strength of randomly oriented strands.
Strip planking is popular amongst canoe builders. A 1/4inch thick core of cedar has fiberglass on either side. The glass provides tensile strength and the wood provides both compression strength and a useful offset between the fiber layers.<p>I can lift the bare hull of an 18 foot long sailing canoe with one hand.<p>The downside is in maintenance/repairs, and the critical requirement to keep through holes absolutely watertight. If water gets into the core it's a total PITA<p>Also, strips of cedar that are 3/4" by 1/4" by 18' are really weird to handle.
Also take a look how strong and abuse-resistant cross laminated timber is: <a href="https://alexschreyer.net/engineering/much-abuse-can-cross-laminated-timber-clt-take/" rel="nofollow">https://alexschreyer.net/engineering/much-abuse-can-cross-la...</a>
Carbon fiber works so well in composites because it is possible to create long, continuous fibers which can be woven into cloth for directional reinforcement.<p>Maybe it is possible to use the strengths of each by adding CNCs to carbon composites.
Hmmmm. I wonder how its material properties change in the -40 to +300F range and if the chemicals involved can tolerate immersion in oils.<p>With the weigh/strength characteristics and requirement that it not see water I can see this material being used in indoor (or sealed inside a gearbox somewhere) applications to reduce rotating mass.
I'm delighted by how in-depth and detailed this is!<p>I'd be interested in seeing the numbers for how much the final product <i>weighs</i> in comparison to Kevlar/Carbon Fibre...<p>I'd also love to know if this research went anywhere since 2012
I think it since got surpassed by UHMWPE, which has a tensile strength of ~20GPa. They make cheap body armor out of it.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-high-molecular-weight_polyethylene" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-high-molecular-weight_po...</a>