A34-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 28, 2002
Penn State Wood Fiber-Cement Research May Yield Better Shingles
UNIVERSITY PARK (Centre
Co.) Here in the East, where
most shingles are made of as
phalt and people give little
thought to the advantages of
shingles made of cement, the sig
nificance of Penn State College of
Agricultural Sciences researcher
Paul Blankenhorn’s work may
not be obvious.
But in places like the West
where the specter of wildfire
passing from burning trees to the
roofs of houses is all too common
Wet Months
UNIVERSITY PARK (Centre
Co.) When Yogi Berra said “it
ain't over’til it’s over,” obviously
he wasn’t talking about the most
recent drought in Pennsylvania,
but Bryan Swistock believes he
could have been.
The water resources extension
specialist in Penn State's College
of Agricultural Sciences is reluc
tant to declare that the state’s
water worries are over after a
four-year dry spell, but he is opti
mistic. An unusual weather pat
tern that has driven a series of
rainstorms up the East Coast
during October and early No
vember is “just what the doctor
ordered,” he said.
Although three southeastern
counties Cumberland. Dela
ware, and Chester remain
under a state-declared
drought emergency
and eight more still
are listed under a
drought warning,
Swistock likes the
rainfall trend he sees.
Counties in the east
ern part of the state
have enjoyed rainfall
two to nine inches
above normal levels
this fall
“Interestingly, al
most all out counties
now are back to nor
mal levels of precipita
tion for the year,” he
said. “Some counties
still are under drought
emergency or warning
because their ground
water levels had fallen
so far after tour years
of exceptionally dry
weather. But most of
the groundwater defi
cits have been erased.”
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the benefits of fireproof cover
ings is obvious. But until relative
ly recently, cement was thought
to be too weak and brittle to be
used for products such as shin
gles and siding that must be dur
able and at least slightly flexible.
That is changing, however, as
scientists discover ways to
supplement cement with addi
tives to make composite materi
als that retain cement’s best
properties fire resistance, water
resistance and stability while
Wipe Out Drought In Pa.
Paradoxically, the western half
of Pennsylvania has been rela
tively dry during the last couple
months while the eastern half has
been soggy. “That is just a reflec
tion of how we have been getting
coastal storms that dump rain
mostly on the eastern sections,”
Swistock said. “You almost can
draw a line at the front of the
Appalachian mountains and west
of that line precipitation levels
have been slightly below normal
for October and early Novem
ber.”
According to Swistock, an in
teresting precipitation phenome
non has developed this year and
he likens it to for lack of a bet
ter example, although it sounds a
bit silly for Pennsylvania mon
soons. “Think about it. Most of
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contributing elasticity and crack
resistance. Blankenhorn says
wood seems to hold the most
promise as a cement additive,
and it is the medium on which he
has focused.
Over eight years, the professor
of wood technology has studied
the effects of adding wood fiber
from recycled newspaper and
kraft paper (brown paper bags)
to Portland cement. He has ex
perimented with coating the
wood fibers with various water
our rainfall this year came during
two periods in May-June and
October-November. In between,
it was so dry that crops withered
and wells went dry,” he said.
“It’s a strange pattern for us
here in Pennsylvania. Normally,
precipitation levels are more con
sistent throughout the year, with
the amounts not varying too
much from month to month. But
2002 has been different.”
Still, as Swistock is careful to
point out, there is nothing to say
that Pennsylvania won’t slip back
into a dry weather pattern this
winter and see drought return
next year. Perhaps Berra put it
best when he said, “The fu-
ture just ain’t what it used
to be.”
soluble polymers such as acrylics,
silicates and silane before they
are added to the cement. Blan
kenhorn’s work shows how ce
ment-wood fiber composites can
make lighter, stronger, flexible,
more durable shingles, siding and
other products.
“In our research, we did not
use wood particles, but wood fi
bers the individual cells,”
Blankenhorn said. “That’s com
pletely different than what has
been done before using wood
particles, such as sawdust, as an
inert filler material. We tried to
create a composite material that
retained the best properties of
both the cement and the wood.”
According to Blankenhorn,
some of the advantages wood fi
SPOTLIGHT ON FAMILIES IN
ANNUAL FARM SHOW ISSUE
The new and expanded Farm Show opens to the public on
Saturday, Jan. 11. And one of our largest, and best issues, is
soon to hit mailboxes. The Jan. 11 issue will be Lancaster
Farming’s own Farm Show Issue, which highlights the newly
expanded, largest indoor agricultural event in the country.
Included that issue: Farm Show family highlights, Keystone
Degree recipient biographies, events schedule, and maps. It’s
a brand-new Farm Show this year. We hope to see you there!
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“Europeans have been using
cement products for shingles for
years, as have the Japanese,”
said Blankenhorn. “The short
coming of such cement products,
obviously, is that they are brittle
and break easily. We are trying
to develop ways to make cement
products stronger and more flexi
ble. I think our research shows
that cement products can be
made stronger and more flexible
if wood fiber is treated before
being added to cement to make
composites.”
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