University of Maine Creates Blast Resistant Wood Building

Engineers at the University of Maine unveiled a prototype of a blast-resistant wood building in February of 2008. Located at the Advanced Engineered Wood Composites (AEWC) Center in Orono, Maine, the facility is constructed with coating treatments applied to the construction material with a design methodology that enables the material to withstand blasts and weather conditions such as hurricanes. This innovation follows on the heels of AEWC’s development of ballistic tent panels for the U.S. Army in 2007.