Experienced CMEC faculty with Professional Engineer (PE) licenses offer consulting services for computer-based modeling, testing setups and ICC test plans, scientific literature reviews, interpretation of codes and standards, product development, process improvement, analysis and interpretation of test data, and technical report writing.

CMEC operates unique structural labs that are accredited through ICC and can perform various testing and evaluation for industry approval. Our high-bay lab has over 2,300 sq. ft. of strong-floor lab space, an 18 ft. tall strong-wall, and houses hydraulic actuators ranging from 7 to 230 kips, all dedicated to large-scale structural testing. We also have four universal test machines with capacities ranging from 2 to 30 kips for smaller-scale projects. We have a total of eight conditioning rooms that maintain temperature and humidity which allows for stable conditions while preparing and testing wood products. We provide nondestructive evaluation, engineering, and fabrication of test fixtures, specimen preparation, mechanical property assessment, evaluation of structural system performance, data analysis, and technical report writing.

CMEC maintains and operates three large-scale presses at our Research Park facility. Our largest press is a pneumatic cold set Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) press that can fabricate 6x12ft panels and up to a 9-ply thickness (up to 13” in depth). We also have 2 hot presses (4×8’ and 28×38”) that are ideal for making many natural fiber composites, such as oriented-strand board (OSB), particle board, and fiberboard. We have the auxiliary equipment and capability of refining, drying, resin spraying and blending, and forming raw material into a finished product to be tested and evaluated for industry use. Our facilities can also provide a structural, physical, and chemical characterization of the raw materials and the final pressed products.

Our fiber refinement capabilities allow for pilot scale processing of shreds, chips, fibers, flakes, particles, and flours to be manufactured by a variety of mills (ball, hammer, refiner disk), shredders/chippers, and flakers (disk, drum, and ring) for many end-use applications.

At CMEC we work with a variety of processing methods for manufacturing and blending polymer systems, such as extrusion and injection molding (IM), along with resin transfer molding (RTM) and vacuum-assisted RTM (VARTM). Since we often use fibers, fillers, and extenders in our polymer and cementitious matrices, we have the capabilities to manufacture these materials and process them into a final product. We are also equipped to run full-scale extrusion and ring pelletization trials with customizable outputs. We are also equipped to provide structural, physical, and chemical evaluation of incoming and final products.

CMEC maintains and operates various scientific instrumentation to perform high-level material analysis. Services include chemical and physical property analyses, material characterization, performance testing and evaluation through energy absorption (pyrolysis), thermogravimetric analysis, microscopy (optical and atomic force), spectroscopy, molecular particle sizing and electrokinetic (zeta) potential, diffraction and chromatography.