Mechanically Enhanced Wood

OMG Inc. New Product Design & Innovation Intern (Summer 2019)

In my time with OMG, I worked with the FastenMaster New Product Design and Innovation Team to conduct a study on the creation and application of mechanically enhanced wood. The central question - how does inserting screws into wood, affect the wood's failure modes & mechanical/material properties? And how can that be marketed? 

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Using an indurstrial-grade 100kN Instron testing machine, I conducted compression tests on over 100 wood beams to investigate how screw orientation impacted load at failure and maximum deflection. I designed & fabricated screw insertion guides to increase insertion accuracy & speed. I gathered all experimental data in Excel & Minitab, and presented to OMG Inc. executives at the end of my internship