Development of wood-based lightweight sandwich panels for structural applications

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Although the concept of wood-based lightweight sandwich panels (LWSPs) has been around for a long time, LWSPs have been gaining popularity in different applications, such as aerospace, transportation, door, furniture and sports equipment. Most LWSPs today consist of two strong thin face sheets glued to a thick lightweight core where both constituents can be of wood, plastics, and/or metal.****Corruven Canada Inc. (hereafter Corruven) located in Edmundston, New Brunswick, has recently developed a series of wood-veneer-based lightweight composite panels with its patented Corruven® Core Technologies. The core technologies have been used to develop LWSPs with different applications. Corruven, would like to collaborate with the University of New Brunswick's Wood Science and Technology Centre to conduct a research project with an aim to optimize the structure and properties of Corruven's LWSPs for structural applications such as scaffold planks and wall systems.** **The proposed project will investigate the feasibility of using LWSPs in construction with high performance in both outdoor and indoor. In this project, effects of production variables and edging materials on panel properties will be studied. Since the cores of Corruven's panels have special configurations / shapes and materials, they do not fall in any category defined in ASTM test methods. Therefore, modified testing methods will be also proposed to evaluate the structural performance of Corruven's LWSPs in terms of stiffness, load capacity and bond quality. The outcomes from this project will help Corruven expand its market to construction sector, and furthermore keep Canada's wood products industry more competitive globally.**************