Natural Materials

Water – Liquid Solutions
Solvent
Acid (pH)
Base
Minerals
Salts
Wax
Clay ( heat kiln hardening)
Rubber
Glass (volcanic)
Wood
Stone  Sand, sand stone, marble, granite – aggregate rocks
Metals  (natural) aluminum, potassium, iron, cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc, titanium, gallium, zirconium, silver, indium, tin, rare.

With the costs of petroleum based plastics skyrocketing, the use of natural eco-green or earth friendly materials with the concerns of land fill and toxic dumps, has driven the product development industry and Industrial Designers back to natural materials.  WD invests in keeping up to date with new “Green” recyclable, biodegradable and compostable materials and packaging trends.  When you work with us you are working with Ph.D. and Masters level materials experts who select materials on the micro and mass production properties basis.  Ask about the new ecologically friendly materials and their hybrid composites that are now available, to help you select the most natural material solution to your product development and manufacturing needs. Questions, Just pound! (770) 277-7097

Natural Elements Basic periodic elements, which 94 occur naturally Earth, including building molecules such as water, liquid solutions, acids, bases, minerals, salts, stone and metals, and of course all living organic matter. A natural or chemical element, or element, is a type of atom that is distinguished by its atomic number; that is, by the number of protons in its nucleus. The term is also used to refer to a pure chemical substance composed of atoms with the same number of protons.[1] Common examples of elements are hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. In total, 117 Elements have been observed as of 2007.
The lightest elements are hydrogen and helium.

Water - H20 refers to the 2 Hydrogen and 1 Oxygen molecule’s liquid form or state or fluid that the loose molecules and suspended particles can freely form a distinct volume and surfaces at the boundaries of its bulk material. A liquid is one of the principal states of matter typically contained in a container or vessel, where the top surface is a free (floating – freely) conforming surface. High and low temperatures cause water to change states with a solid state below freezing point 32F/0C, ice and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam above boiling point,212F 100C. About 70% of the Earth’s surface, with 1.6% of water below ground in aquifers and 0.001% is in the air as vapor, clouds (formed of solid and liquid water particles suspended in air), and precipitation or rain, mist or hale.

Liquid Solutions A liquid’s solution or state and shape is confined to, not determined by, the container it fills. Liquid particles (normally molecules) are free to move about the volume, but they form a discrete surface that may not necessarily be the same as the vessel. At a temperature below the boiling point, a liquid will evaporate until, the concentration of the gas belonging to the liquid reach a pressure equilibrium. The surface of the liquid behaves as an elastic membrane in which surface tension appears, allowing the formation of drops and bubbles. Gas; it can also be considered a fluid, but it must conform to the shape of the container entirely.

pH is a measure of the acidity or alkalinity of a solution. Aqueous solutions at 25 °C with a pH less than 7 are considered acidic, while those with a pH greater than 7 are considered basic (alkaline). pH values in water are commonly in the range 0-14, though more extreme values, even negative values, are possible. When a pH level is 7.0, it is defined as ‘neutral’ at 25 °C because at this pH the concentration of H3O+ equals the concentration of OH− in pure water.

Acid (HA) a chemical compound when dissolved in water, gives a solution with a hydrogen ion activity greater than in pure water, i.e. a pH less than 7.0. Acid are categorized as: Weak acids, Lewis acids, Mineral acids, Organic acids , Strong acids, Superacids. Strong and many concentrated acids are corrosive and dangerous to humans or animals, causing severe burns upon contact. Examples of simple acid are Citric acid and Hydrochloric acid. General properties include they will react with metals to produce a metal salt and hydrogen or with metal carbonates to produce water, CO2 and a salt. Acids will react with a base to produce a salt and water or with a metal oxide to produce water and a salt. An acid will conduct electricity, depending on the degree of dissociation.

Base   A base is a chemical compound when dissolved in water, gives a solution with a hydrogen ion activity greater than in pure water, i.e. a pH less than 7.0, In chemistry it is most commonly thought of as a substance that can accept protons. Alternate definitions of bases include electron pair donors (Lewis), as sources of hydroxide anions (Arrhenius). Examples of simple bases are sodium hydroxide and ammonia. Weak bases, Lewis bases, Organic bases Strong bases, Superbases Non-nucleophilic bases. Concentrated or strong bases are caustic or corrosive on organic matter and react violently with acidic substances. Liquid or molten bases dissociate in ions and conduct electricity.

Mineral a naturally occurring substance formed through geological processes with a highly ordered atomic structure with characteristic chemical composition, and specific physical properties. A rock is an aggregate of minerals. Minerals range in composition from pure elements and simple salts to very complex silicates with thousands of known forms. Silicate is used to denote types of rock that consist predominantly of silicate minerals. Such rocks include a wide range of igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary types

Igneous rock is formed by solidification of cooled magma (molten rock), with or without crystallization, either below the surface as intrusive (plutonic) rocks or on the surface as extrusive (volcanic) rocks. There are over 700 types of igneous rocks. Classification of igneous rocks are by particle size (depends upon the cooling history) and the mineral composition. Feldspars, quartz or feldspathoids, olivines, pyroxenes, amphiboles, and micas are all important minerals in the formation.

Metamorphic rock makes up a large part of the Earth’s crust in a process called metamorphism, where preexisting (protolith) sedimentary, igneous or other metamorphic rock by the intrusion of hot molten rock called magma from the Earth’s interior. The rock is subjected to extreme heat and pressure from the above rock layers and tectonic processes such as continental collisions causing significant physical and/or chemical change. Metamorphic rock is classified by texture chemical and mineral composition and/or metamorphic facies, that are typical for a certain field in pressure-temperature.

Sedimentary rock is rock formed from sediments covering 75% of the Earth’s land area including: chalk, limestone, dolomite, sandstone, conglomerate and shale.

Salt Salt is a chemical substance formed from the neutralisation reaction of acids and bases. Salts are ionic compounds composed of cations (positively charged ions) and anions (negative ions) or electrically neutral (without a net charge). Salts that produce hydroxide ions when dissolved in water are basic salts and salts that produce hydronium ions in water are acid salts. Neutral salts are those that are neither acid nor basic salts. Zwitterions contain an anionic center and a cationic center in the same molecule but are not considered to be salts. Examples include amino acids, many metabolites, peptides and proteins. Dissolved in water, they are called electrolytes, able to conduct electricity.

Wax  Wax is a natural secretion of plants or animals, including bees wax, carnauba (a plant epicuticular wax) and paraffin (a petroleum wax). Waxes are also artificially produced by purification from natural petroleum or completely synthetic and vary in states based on the environmental conditions. Waxes typically move from solid to liquid at relatively low temperatures, above 90F – 100F degrees.

Clay  Clay minerals (phyllosilicate) are natural, composed primarily of fine-grained minerals with a level of range of water content, forming a plastic state (plasticity) which can be formed, sculpted, molded or shaped (Silly Putty)- then processed or dried or fired to hardened by polar attraction. Main groups of clays include: kaolinite, montmorillonite-smectite, illite, and chlorite. Chlorites are not always considered a clay, sometimes being classified as a separate group within the phyllosilicates. There are approximately thirty different types of “pure” clays in these categories, but most “natural” clays are mixtures of these different types, along with other weathered minerals.

Rubber Natural  Rubber occurs as a milky colloidal suspension, or latex, in the sap of some plants as an elastic hydrocarbon polymer It can also be synthesized. Rubbers elastic behavior is caused by bond distortions. When force is applied, bond lengths deviate from the (minimum energy) equilibrium and strain energy is stored electrostatically. In its relaxed state, rubber consists of long, coiled-up polymer chains that are interlinked. Between a pair of chain links, each monomer can rotate freely. giving each section freedom to assume a large number of geometries. Rubber strain energy is stored thermally, as well as electrostatically.

Glass   Glass is often extended to all amorphous solids (and melts that easily form amorphous solids), including plastics, resins, or other silica-free amorphous solids. Pure silica (SiO2) has a “glass melting point” of over 2300 °C (4200 °F). While pure silica can be made into glass for special applications (see fused quartz), other substances are added to common glass to simplify processing. In general it refers to a hard, brittle, transparent solid materials used in packaging, storage, drinking vessels. The optical and physical properties of glass make it ideal for applications such as flat glass, container glass, glasses, cameras, microscopes, telescopes optics and optoelectronics applications (fiber optics), laboratory equipment, electronics manufacturing (PCB’s), integrated circuits, thermal insulator (glass wool), reinforcement fiber (glass-reinforced plastic, glass fiber reinforced concrete), and decorative art. such as stained glass windows or vases. Commonly used for windows (architectural glazing), bottles, or eyewear, including soda-lime glass, acrylic glass, sugar glass, isinglass (Muscovy-glass), or aluminium oxynitride.

Paper P aper making has been around for centuries. Paper is manufactured thin sheet, material, known for its high strength to weight ratio. Typically produced from pulpwood trees or vegetable fibers from cotton, hemp, linen, and rice, produced by the amalgamation of the pulp fibers, composed of cellulose fused together by hydrogen bonding. Fiber orientation and the addition of a wide variety of synthetic fibers, such as polypropylene( PP) and polyethylene (PE) help to improve physical properties. Paper is used in a wide variety of product applications for writing surfaces to printing to packaging. Card board, paperboard, paper stock, tag board or card stock is a pulp based, thick paper board material, usually over ten mils (0.010 inch, or 0.25 mm) in thickness, used as a corrugated sheet in the construction of corrugated fiberboard (cardboard) fluted sandwich sheet with;1, 2 – 4 layered linerboards. Paperboard are commonly used for folding cartons, set-up boxes, tag card packaging and widely used in the manufacture of corrugated boxes and shipping containers.

Stone   Stone and rocks are classified by mineral and chemical composition, by the texture of the constituent particles and by the processes that formed them. These indicators separate rocks into igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic. They may also be classified according to particle size, in the case of conglomerates and breccias or in the case of individual stones. The transformation of one rock type to another is described by the geological model called the rock cycle. Stone and rocks are typically quarried, a type of open-pit mine from which materials are extracted for building and construction and paving materials. Types of rock extracted from quarries include:

* Cinder
* China Clay
* Coquina
* Construction aggregate
* Granite
* Gritstone
* Gypsum a mineral
* Limestone
* Marble
* Sandstone
* Slate

Common Stone

Limestone: Limestone makes up about 10% of the total earth volume of sedimentary rock with variable amounts of silica in the form of chert or flint, as well as varying amounts of clay, silt and sand as disseminations, nodules, or layers within the rock. The primary source of the calcite in limestone is most commonly marine organisms. Colors: Adair sepia, Eramosa, Ledgerock, Tyndall, St Marc des Carrières, Arriscraft
Anorthosite (Cambrian black) Charnockite (Laurentide green),

Chalk is a soft, white, porous sedimentary rock, a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite. It forms under relatively deep marine conditions from the gradual accumulation of minute calcite plates (coccoliths) shed from micro-organisms called coccolithophores.

Diabase (Imperial black),

Diorite (Whistler white),

Flint (or flintstone) is a hard, sedimentary crystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. Flint is usually dark-grey, black, or deep brown in color and a dull shine appearance. Common chert (sometimes referred to simply as “chert”) normally occurs in limestone.

Granite  Granite is a wide occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous (crystalline) rock which has a medium to coarse texture, that is hard and tough used as a cosmetic building construction material. Granites can be pink to dark gray or even black, occasionally with large to small some individual crystals forming a rock known as porphyry. The average density of granite is 2.75 g/cm3. Colors: Atlantic Black, Laurentide Green Vermillon Pink Ash brown Shipshaw Spring Green Black Cambrian Canadian Mahogany Polychrome Saguenay red Wild Pink Birch White, Tadoussac, Green leaf, Autumn Harmony, Gris St-Sébastien, Dark steel, Peribonka, Pine Green, Deer brown, Saguenay brown, Gabbro: Black daniel Gneiss: Riviere Pentecote, Gallix, Nordic river, Apica, Sawene, Stanstead grey, Brun castor, Boston Bar, Aqua mist, Robson rose, Sumas sky, Whitewater classico, Whitewater, Atlantic pink, Cascade coral, Riviera, Rose riviere, Ash rose, Astra, Dark caledonia, Royal canadian red, Winneway rose, Noir nordique, Anticostie, St Lawrence green, Franquelin red, Gris St Sébastien, Caledonia original, Stanstead grey, Charcoal grey, Arctic white, Abbey rose, Acajou, Granville, Caledonianara, Newport, Caledonia

Marble Marble is a nonfoliated metamorphic rock resulting from the metamorphism of limestone, composed mostly of calcite (a crystalline form of calcium carbonate, CaCO3). It is a relatively soft rock used extensively for sculpture and as a building material supply and many other decorative and structural applications, based on its large natural deposits. The word “marble” is colloquially used to refer to many other stones that are capable of taking a high polish. Autumn brown, Polychrome, Sagami are types of a sedimentary rock composed mostly of quartz and/or feldspar. Pure – solid hue and color saturated marble colors, veining, spotting, crystalline patterns are often based on the specific geographic areas that is is quarried or mined. Colors range from pure white or deep hue colors and contrasting color sometimes with lustrous or prismatic light effects.

Sandstone Composed mainly of sand granular sized minerals or grains, sandstone common colors are tan, brown, yellow, red, gray and white. Sandstones are relatively easy to sculpt or work, common being used an architectural building and paving material. The hardness and weathering properties are based on the individual grain, uniformity of grain size and friability of its structure it is used to make grindstones, for sharpening blades and other implements. Non-friable sandstone can be used to make grinding devices for grinding and pulverizing grain, i.e. gritstone or grinding stone. Sandstone colors / trade names :

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, metamorphic rock derived from sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash. Typically in many shades of grey from pale to dark and may also be purple, green or cyan. used for roof covering.

Steatite (Soapstone) is composed dominantly of talc and magnesium, it is a metamorphic rock, It has been excellent medium for sculptural carving.

Syenite is a coarse-grained intrusive igneous rock of the same general composition as granite but with the quartz either absent or present in relatively small amounts (

Travertine Travertine is a sedimentary rock was mined by the Romans deriving its name from Tivoli Italy, near Rome, known as Tibur in ancient times. It is a natural chemical precipitate of carbonate minerals; typically Aragonite, but often recrystallized to or primarily Calcite. Travertine is exceptionally porous and fine travertine is white, but often includes streaking, patching, vein and grain textures resulting from impurities and other carbonate minerals in the material resulting in a cream, light brown to yellow color.

Onyx is a “Cryptocrystalline” a form of quartz. Pure black is most common but also with bands of color ranging from white to almost every color (save some shades, such as Purple or Blue.) Commonly, specimens of onyx available contain bands of colors of white, tan, and brown. Sardonyx is a variant in which the colored bands are sard (shades of red) rather than black., and perhaps the most famous variety, but not as common as Onyx with banded colors.

Wood

Wood is the generic term for a wide variety of biological categories such as hard woods and soft woods rough cut to decorative and fancy milled profiles. Trees, Wood or Lumber in its raw material state is used in a wide range of applications; from exterior building structures to structural framing to interior finishing trim to furniture and seating to decorative automotive and product treatments such as wood grain inlays to sculpted hand grips. Trees are processed from natural growth locations into usable Lumber as part of the lumber wood supply industry where it is typically trucked, railed or water flotation transported in tree trunk form, striped of all branches, to the processing saw mill. The trees are then sawn or lathed into round cylinders followed by split or band saw cutting – into 6” – 24” or 6” x 6 “rough cut beam sections. These beams are further processed or cut into smaller sections or beams or boards, be it square, rectangular, round or intricate profile and/or further sanded to finer grain smooth finishes and tinted, stained or painted, based on the end product needs. Boards can be used for carpentry, hobbies, furniture, shelving, and general exterior or interior finish work.

Hardwood designates wood from gum-level (mostly deciduous, but not necessarily, in the case of tropical trees) or angiosperm trees. Softwood, comes from conifer trees On average, hardwood is a higher density and impact hardness than softwood with considerable variation in hardness in both groups, For example (e.g. balsa) classified a hardwood is softer than most softwoods, while Yew is an example of a hard softwood. Hardwoods have significant variations and are typically grow in subtropical regions like Africa and Asia and some parts of Europe and have broad leaves and enclosed nuts or seeds such as acorns. The dominant feature separating hardwoods from softwoods is the presence of pores, or vessels. Hardwoods are generally more resistant to degradation and then softwoods Tropical hardwoods such as rose wood and card mahogany once were readily available but supply is now restricted due to over forestation and sustainability. Advances in wood technology including the use of thin veneers (thin cut sheets turned or lathed from trees to construct 1/8” to 1” to plywood or layered boards which have a finer outside surface finish with rough cut thinner sandwiched or glue bonded together. Other applications include a medium-density (wood fiber and glue based) processed fiberboard (MDF) and engineered woods beams such as composite structural beams constructed using heat and pressure and chemical bonding agents to form a wood grainless sheet or board product Wood is priced by the Board Foot. A board foot is a calculated unit of wood volume measuring 144 cubic inches. The formula to calculate board feet is Board Feet = (length * width * thickness) / 144. Hardwood lumber thickness is measured rough sawn. If you purchase 4/4 boards surfaced on both sides expect to see actual measurements smaller than that and closer to 3 – 13/16. If your lumber is already surfaced, calculate board feet on the rough thickness.

Below is a table of the general commodity wood type and relative hardness and cost:

Wood,     Wood Hardness,  Price($)

Ash, White  1320 $

Basswood 410 $

Butternut 490 $

Cherry, Black 950 $$

Maple, Hard 1450 $$

Maple, Soft 999 $

Oak, Red 1290 $

Oak, White 1360 $

Sycamore, American 770 $

Walnut, Black 1010 $$

Exotic Hardwoods

Bloodwood 3300 $$$

Lacewood 840 $$$

Padauk 1725 $$$

Purpleheart 2000 $$

Composite Sheet
Baltic Birch $$

Hardwood Plywood
Lumber Core $$$

MDF ( Micro fiber, smooth finish) $

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