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Japan Autoparts Maker to Commercialize Process for Fabricating Gears, Bolts From Scrap Wood
3 February 2008
Nikkei. Japan autoparts developer Chunichi Seiko Co. plans to commercialize a process for fabricating gears and bolts from scrap wood. The autoparts maker, along with development partners Aichi Industrial Institute and Yoji Kikata, received a Global 100 Eco-Tech Award in 2005 for the work.
Chunichi Seiko will hurry to develop a practical version of the technology to make gears and bolts for applications in cars and consumer electronics, playing up the green aspects of the process, since use of wood-derived parts helps economize on oil and reduce carbon-dioxide emissions.
Parts made from 100% wood are difficult to machine into complicated shapes, but Chunichi Seiko first treats the scrap with hot steam in a pressurized chamber to break down cellulose and fragment the constituents of the wood. Several kinds of synthetic resins are then added to adjust strength and water absorbency, and additives are mixed in to prevent the gears and bolts from losing strength during the machining process.
February 3, 2008 in Brief | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)
Comments
Posted by: aristotle | February 03, 2008 at 11:32 AM
How strong can a gear made of wood possibly be?
I don't think we'll be seeing wooden gears that'll fit in a Ford 9" rear end very soon ...
Posted by: Brian P | February 03, 2008 at 01:07 PM
cellophane and rayon were originally created from wood cellulose. I wonder if these would be more like nylon bolts, because they don't talk about fiber reinforcement (glass, carbon fiber etc. A small food processor I bought contains threaded plastic gears, but it's of course it's not heavy duty equipment. I think this is what they're talking about.
Posted by: Jim G. | February 03, 2008 at 04:11 PM
Please don't laugh, but is this the start of disposable cars? After all, in our life, is the only thing we repair are cars?
Posted by: | February 04, 2008 at 12:43 AM
I beliefe that there is already a well known process of making plastic-resin like materials (which can be machined and extruded) from lignin (the stuff paper mills extract from wood as waste). Just add some wood fibers back in, and you end up with a pretty good composite material, based 95%+ on wood. Also, it does biodegrade (over 10-30 years), unlike real plastics with will be around in 1000s of years in the landfills...
Posted by: realarms | February 04, 2008 at 01:12 AM
This is completely possible.
Wood itself is a composite like carbon fibre just a natural one. Formula one are already researching using Bamboo for the car chassis as it can be grown quicker than carbon fibre can be produced and is stronger & cheaper...
So in fact i wouldn't be suprised to see wooden gearing in a Ford 9" rear end real soon. The only reason you won't see it is because Ford is a backwards American Auto manufacturer and needs a government tax break before it tries anything new =P.
Posted by: Mitch | April 07, 2008 at 02:53 AM
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Chemicals, additives ? What chemicals ?
What additives ? Can hardly call it wood anymore after
mixing with chemicals & additives, it becomes a composite. Yellow becomes green, black turns into purple, too much booze ?