melting wood.....

[kelvin tooth]

hello...

i am writing re: a message from october 1994... which read as follows

My associates and I have become interested in a project. We request any
information available on previous attempts/successes or IDEAS on how this
may be accomplished. The project is melting wood. We believe that it can
be accomplished in one of three ways.
1) Extreme heat applied via infrared radiation in a vacuum.
2) Extreme heat applied via infrared radiation in pure carbon dioxide.
3) Treatment with hydrogen peroxide and exposure to heat.

has anyone heard anymore from these guys?
I would like to know what the current thoughts are.

kelvin

[opl...@gmail.com]

I apologise for including the entire post, but I'm betting that not many of you reading this will have such an old message to determine context.

Just to revive this thread as it doesn't seem to have been answered satisfactorily in 20 years.

http://www.geek.com/science/good-news-its-possible-to-weld-wood-with-friction-video-1567462/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0k04hjdYuQ


Quote:

The TWI researchers that are looking into this can't totally explain the wood welding phenomenon, actually. They think the cellular structure melts and forms an unknown matrix which cools into a stable joint, now actually a feature of a single fused object. During the fusing process, charred wood is ejected in tight shavings, meaning that some portion of the wood is actually burned away as the friction process begins.
Assuming there was a way to actually implement something a finicky as 200-hertz vibration on a large scale, the ability to completely stop air flow between pieces of wood could fundamentally improve construction. The joint's strength is not discussed, however. Though we could find uses for this in the future, right now it's just an interesting question, and a very cool video.


TWI as in http://www.twi-global.com/

Interesting stuff indeed. Does anyone else reading have anything to add about melting wood?

-S

[Dr Engelbert Buxbaum]

In article <b569d23e-cdda-46b1...@googlegroups.com>,
opl...@gmail.com says...

> > The project is melting wood. We believe that it can
> > be accomplished in one of three ways.
> > 1) Extreme heat applied via infrared radiation in a vacuum.
> > 2) Extreme heat applied via infrared radiation in pure carbon dioxide.
> > 3) Treatment with hydrogen peroxide and exposure to heat.

> Just to revive this thread as it doesn't seem to have been answered
satisfactorily in 20 years.
>
> http://www.geek.com/science/good-news-its-possible-to-weld-wood-with-friction-video-1567462/
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0k04hjdYuQ
>
>

Wood is, to oversimplify, a mixture of cellulose and lignin. Neither of
these macromolecules can melt, if heated they decompose even in vacuum
or in a protective atmosphere.

As to the video I'd have to guess. Assuming this isn't simply a hoax,
this reminds me of cold-welding (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_welding), a
process well-described for metals since the 1940s. If you place 2 very
smooth and clean metal pieces together, they may fuse. This process is
helped by pressure, friction and heat. It occurs if the atoms of both
pieces are brought together closely enough that their electrons can
interact.

In everyday experience the roughness of materials will prevent atoms
from getting close enough together over large enough an area for cold-
welding to occur, but you will recall that car engines need lubrication,
otherwise the piston would get stuck inside the cylinder.

If you rub together 2 pieces of wood, they will "sand" each other down.
It is conceivable that under those conditions the distance between
molecules gets small enough for hydrogen bonds to form. If this
explanation were correct, then the weld would be quite weak, as it is
held together by hydrogen bonds rather than the network of covalent
bonds holding together a grown piece of wood.