Highly transparent (up to 92% light transmittance) wood composites have been developed. The process of fabricating the transparent wood composites includes lignin removal followed by index-matching polymer infiltration resulted in fabrication of the transparent wood composites with preserved naturally aligned nanoscale fibers. The thickness of the transparent wood composite can be tailored by controlling the thickness of the initial wood substrate. The optical transmittance can be tailored by selecting infiltrating polymers with different refractive indices. The transparent wood composites have a range of applications in biodegradable electronics, optoelectronics, as well as structural and energy efficient building materials. By coating the transparent wood composite layer on the surface of GaAs thin film solar cell, an 18% enhancement in the overall energy conversion efficiency has been attained.

The invention relates to a method, comprising illuminating an area of a wood fibre web by directing ultraviolet light to an area of the web by an ultraviolet light source, capturing an image of at least part of the illuminated area by an imaging device comprising a colour filter, transmitting image data of the captured image to an image data processing device, and analysing if the captured image comprises a fluorescent liquid stain emitting fluorescent light passed through the colour filter. The invention further relates to a machine vision system and a computer program product for detecting fluorescent liquid stains from a wood fibre web.

The invention relates to a method, comprising illuminating an area of a wood fibre web by directing ultraviolet light to an area of the web by an ultraviolet light source, capturing an image of at least part of the illuminated area by an imaging device comprising a colour filter, transmitting image data of the captured image to an image data processing device, and analysing if the captured image comprises a fluorescent liquid stain emitting fluorescent light passed through the colour filter. The invention further relates to a machine vision system and a computer program product for detecting fluorescent liquid stains from a wood fibre web.

Methods of making, and the resultant monolithic drum shell for a musical instrument, that include selecting one or more desired wood fibers, providing a resinous binder solution, and immersing the wood fibers within the resinous binder solution for a duration that saturates and covers the wood fibers with the resinous binder solution to form a drum shell liquid composition. The drum shell liquid composition is deposited into a mold, and then cured to form a monolithic composite drum shell. The monolithic composite drum shell is removed from the mold to provide a ready-to-use drum shell for assembling into a musical instrument.

Near InfraRed NIR technology, including NIR cameras and detectors, and machine learning methods and systems, including one or more Machine Learning (ML) based surface irregularity prediction models, are used to accurately identify surface irregularities on a surface of a wood product, such as a veneer sheet or ribbon, and provide irregularity prediction data for the wood product. Based on the irregularity prediction data for a given wood product, one or more actions are taken with respect to wood product or the production process to ensure the wood product is put to the most efficient, effective, and valuable use.

Near InfraRed NIR technology, including NIR cameras and detectors, are used to detect irregularity in the surface of a wood product. Based on the detected irregularities at various locations in a given wood product, one or more actions are taken with respect to a production process used to produce the wood product to ensure the wood product is put to the most efficient, effective, and valuable use.

A method for manufacturing a transparent heat-insulation building material from waste wood is provided. The method includes the following steps of: step S1, wood pretreatment, drying immersing, heating, adding a complexing agent solution, stirring, then drying the wood; step S2, wood acetylation treatment, loading the wood into a pressure vessel, adding acetylation fluid, reducing the pressure, and then pressurizing and raising a temperature; step S3, resin impregnating, adding a methyl methacrylate monomer solution and heating it, adding the methyl methacrylate monomer and benzoyl peroxide, bleaching the wood by hydrogen peroxide, and placing them in a vacuum permeator to allow the prepolymer liquid to penetrate into the wood and collecting the prepolymer liquid; and step S4, hot press molding polymerizing the wood in an oven and sleeving it into a heat press molding to obtain a densified wood.

A method for manufacturing a transparent heat-insulation building material from waste wood is provided. The method includes the following steps of: step S1, wood pretreatment, drying immersing, heating, adding a complexing agent solution, stirring, then drying the wood; step S2, wood acetylation treatment, loading the wood into a pressure vessel, adding acetylation fluid, reducing the pressure, and then pressurizing and raising a temperature; step S3, resin impregnating, adding a methyl methacrylate monomer solution and heating it, adding the methyl methacrylate monomer and benzoyl peroxide, bleaching the wood by hydrogen peroxide, and placing them in a vacuum permeator to allow the prepolymer liquid to penetrate into the wood and collecting the prepolymer liquid; and step S4, hot press molding polymerizing the wood in an oven and sleeving it into a heat press molding to obtain a densified wood.

An aqueous coating composition includes, based on the total weight of the aqueous coating composition, (a) an aqueous polymer dispersion present in an amount of from 15% to 33% by solids weight, wherein the polymer includes at least 95% by solids weight of an acrylic emulsion copolymer based on the solids weight of the polymer; (b) anionic colloidal silica present in an amount of from 1% to 13% by solids weight; (c) a solvent present in an amount of from 0.5% to 9% by weight, wherein the solvent has at least one hydroxyl group and a dielectric constant at 25 C. of from 7 to 10.3; (d) a monoamine compound present in an amount of from 0.2% to 1.5% by weight, wherein the monoamine compound is selected from an alkyl monoamine, a beta-hydroxyl monoamine containing up to 2 hydroxyl groups, or mixtures thereof; and (e) water.

An aqueous coating composition includes, based on the total weight of the aqueous coating composition, (a) an aqueous polymer dispersion present in an amount of from 15% to 33% by solids weight, wherein the polymer includes at least 95% by solids weight of an acrylic emulsion copolymer based on the solids weight of the polymer; (b) anionic colloidal silica present in an amount of from 1% to 13% by solids weight; (c) a solvent present in an amount of from 0.5% to 9% by weight, wherein the solvent has at least one hydroxyl group and a dielectric constant at 25 C. of from 7 to 10.3; (d) a monoamine compound present in an amount of from 0.2% to 1.5% by weight, wherein the monoamine compound is selected from an alkyl monoamine, a beta-hydroxyl monoamine containing up to 2 hydroxyl groups, or mixtures thereof; and (e) water.