SBIR/STTR Award attributes
The military spends millions of dollars importing lumber made from an endangered Asian tree species to keep decking on heavy transport vehicles. This special lumber is made from the Apitong tree, which is considered to have one of the best strength to weight ratio of any commercially harvested species. However, the wood is increasing in cost, comes from Asia, and only lasts 8 to 10 years before needing to be replaced. Better innovative solutions are available that will enable 1 to 1 replacement of the expensive wood with an engineered composite that can have a similar look, feel, strength, toughness, and a 3x improvement in field life. Wizbe Industries is bringing together a team that incorporates the full development of the engineered composite project from a highly skilled development team to production capabilities. Wizbe Industries is working with Concordia, Tex Tech Industries, and University of Maine (UMaine) to provide the U.S Army with a customized, hardened composite heavy transport trailer bed material. The overall objective of this program is to develop an engineered solution for a direct replacement of the Apitong lumber for heavy transport trailers. The composite solution will have similar or better properties as the wood with a longer field life. The composite will be usable just like conventional wood: cut, nailed, screwed, etc. The composite can be integrated into any system just like conventional wood, but without the short field life. The cost will likely be slightly higher than the current price of the imported wood, but will be dramatically lower over the life of the truck bed through lower replacement cycles.
