Ambalcore Sees Bright Future in RV Industry for ‘Balsacore’ – RVBusiness – Breaking RV Industry News

AUSTIN, Texas – Balsa wood isn’t just for model airplanes anymore. A company called Ambalcore sees a bright future for the material in the RV industry. It is the exclusive distributor to the U.S. for Indubalcorp, the world’s second largest producer of Balsacore composites.

“We would like to introduce our product to the RV industry as an alternative or coupling to the core materials they currently use,” said Ambalcore CEO and Co-Founder Sean Corbut, who is aiming to get his product in front of RV OEMs this summer. The company’s product is already used in a number of industries and applications, including wind turbine blades, marine, sporting goods, hobby materials and aviation construction.

“Balsacore is used worldwide in the construction of wind turbine blades, however, in China it is also used extensively in the exoskeletons of high-speed trains and commuter buses,” said Corbut. “An automotive company has even started using our material in the construction of various vehicles.”

Ambalcore is FSC certified, grows over 40 percent of its raw material, and has decades of experience in manufacturing and supplying clients in various industries around the world.

“I personally feel it would fit in RV construction as a core material, because it is very strong, sustainable, light weight, and cheaper than petroleum-based foams,” said Corbut. The main application that he feels his product will be most useful is in RV sidewalls and possibly roofs.

“The Balsa tree grows to maturity in a shorter timespan – about four and a half years – so it’s different from other wood sources in the sense that they could take 20 or 25 years to grow to maturity.” All of the company’s plantations are in Ecuador, and they have a warehouse distribution point in the U.S. They see their product as a replacement for foam in traditional sidewall construction.

“I did a lot of digging and was very fortunate to find my partner down in Ecuador. He told me that It’s not money they are lacking.” He said, “we want somebody who knows wood, knows lumber production, and is also just passionate and interested in doing this for a living. And I am. I feel like this is something that I’ll be doing until I pass away.”

Corbut likes to point out that balsa is a renewable resource, and is lighter and stronger than some of the other woods being used today. “It’s not petroleum based, and all of our competitors in the core material market are petroleum based.” This means that a lot of those foams end up in landfills because they aren’t easily recyclable. He also points out that balsa wood has been used for years in these types of applications, citing that the original Sputnik satellite employed some in its construction, as well as the Apollo spacecraft.

“We’re trying to expand to other markets such as the RV industry because I think balsa’s not heavily used in other markets currently because the wind turbine industry eats it all up. So, I’m interested in expanding our product to as many new markets as possible.”

For more information, visit https://www.ambalcore.com.

Source: https://rvbusiness.com/ambalcore-sees-bright-future-in-rv-industry-for-balsacore/