Simulations Make a Maine Business Internationally Competitive

Laminated wood products are constructed of layers of wood reinforced with polymers to produce materials that are in many cases stronger than steel and easier to work with. The versatility of these materials comes partly from the fact that they are often custom engineered for a particular application. But because each custom laminate is unique, prototype samples need to be manufactured and subjected to testing, and this process is very expensive. Brunswick Technologies, Incorporated (BTI), a Maine company, wanted its customers to be able to experiment with the company's laminate products but did not want to go to the expense of preparing custom samples. Like many companies around the world, BTI turned to the Advanced Engineered Wood Composites Center (AEWC) at the University of Maine for help. The AEWC designed a computer simulation program that allows customers to experiment with many different combinations of materials on a computer screen until they find the exact Brunswick Technologies fabrication to meet their needs. For the AEWC, the work was only one small part of a larger $4 million project funded by the National Science Foundation, but for BTI the competitive advantage is huge. As Dr. Habib Dagher, Director of the AEWC explains, "We applied new and existing knowledge to make a Maine company more competitive in the world marketplace."