Advanced Structures & Composites Center

Some of the U.S. Coast Guard’s aging marine facilities in the Northeast will get a face-lift using some of the newest building materials available as the result of research at The University of Maine. UMaine’s Advanced Engineered Wood Composites (AEWC) Center has a three-year, $500,000 contract with the Coast Guard to develop and test composite components […]

It is one thing for a student to get hands-on experience in field construction and another to be a project manager overseeing construction of Maine’s first wood composite commercial pier. University of Maine graduate student Melanie Bragdon is involved in fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite research. Her work has taken her from UMaine’s state-of-the-art Advanced Engineered Wood […]

In the latest session of the Maine legislature, at least nine wooden gavels were broken in the House of Representatives by House Speaker Michael Saxl as he pronounced votes on bills and other matters. That’s when a legislative colleague turned to The University of Maine for a solid solution to a problem of smashed gavels that, […]

Editorial Voters who two years ago supported the state’s first attempt to fuel its university system with money for research and development now can see their investment in action. The University of Maine’s new wood-composite lab melds Maine’s traditional natural- resource-based economy with a high-tech future. At UMaine’s Advanced Engineered Wood Composites Center, wood products […]

Materials Made By Combining Several Others, Are Becoming Big Business In Maine  By L. Mercedes Wesel David Patch imagines a town in Midcoast Maine known not for lobster, loons or moose, but as a living laboratory for modern construction materials. In Patch’s vision, the bridge leading into town is made of a material that is […]