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October 11, 2024

Let's Talk About Timbers

Jacking timbers- also known as cribbing timbers or blocks- are an essential component of jack and slide operations, providing support anywhere it's needed.

Timbers for heavy rigging operations such as jack and slide need to withstand massive loads without failing, so they must be very strong, crush-resistant, consistent, and durable. The ideal timber should also be resistant to fire, rot, and pests, and manageable for the riggers that need to move and stack them. 

Hydra-Slide offers two different types of jacking timber that satisfy these criteria: Ekki timbers and Dragonwood timbers. Read on to learn more about the characteristics of these products and the differences between them. 

What is Ekki?

Ekki, which is also called Azobé or red Ironwood, is a tropical hardwood found in West African forests. This wood has been in common use in the rigging industry for decades, and is renowned for being fire-, rot-, and pest-resistant, and extremely strong. Standard-size timbers measuring 4"x4" and 40" long weigh roughly 26 lbs, and we also offer custom sizes: 4"x6" timbers, 2"x6" timbers, and custom lengths.

As a slow-growing tropical hardwood, there is concern that the production of Ekki timber is not sustainable in the long term, ecologically or commercially. Newly-produced Ekki may also be harvested from younger trees, resulting in lower density and more twisting and cracking than older timbers.

Why not use a more common hardwood?

A question we get regularly is, why not use a more common wood such as white oak for these applications? Well, when we say Ekki is stronger than other woods, we mean it- Ekki is roughly 3 times stronger than white oak in bending and crushing tests. 

Oak timbers are sometimes used in the field, however they typically need to be much larger- 8"x8" and weighing 80-100 lbs- and they're still not strong enough for all applications.

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What is Dragonwood?

Dragonwood is our name for a fairly new and very promising product, timber made from an Engineered Bamboo Composite (EBC) material. Similar to Ekki, these timbers are offered in a standard size of 4"x4"x40", and weigh around 28 lbs each. Like Ekki, we also offer Dragonwood in custom lengths and custom dimensions such as 4"x6" and 2"x6".

Solid, unprocessed bamboo is not appropriate for most industrial applications, but the Dragonwood material- consisting of about 80% bamboo fibers and 20% resin- is a different story. These timbers are comparable to Ekki in strength, durability, and resistance to fire, rot, and pests. They are also more consistent than natural wood, and exhibit essentially no shrinking or warping over time. 

A note on sustainability

From the perspective of sustainability, bamboo is an absolute superstar: it grows extremely quickly with high yield, thrives in a variety of climates, and is even an effective sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide.

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Details and Specifications

We like data! Unfortunately, the available data on jacking timbers is limited: Dragonwood (and EBCs in general), are quite new, and regarding Ekki, we must also bear in mind that new timbers may not perform comparably to older study results. 

For this reason Hydra-Slide initiated a study, in collaboration with researchers in the University of Waterloo engineering department, to determine the mechanical properties of both the Ekki and Dragonwood timbers that we offer.

On the left, you can see some of our timbers being tested to failure. Full results are expected to be published in 2025, including a rigorous comparison of Dragonwood to Ekki timbers.

In the meantime, preliminary data are enough for us to be very confident in the viability of Dragonwood as an alternative to the industry-standard Ekki timber.

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In Summary

Ekki is tried and true, with a long track record of excellent performance in the field. Dragonwood is a comparatively new invention, but very promising as a sustainable alternative to solid hardwood.

Ekki and Dragonwood are both excellent choices as jacking timbers, and both are a perfect complement to our skidding systems and equipment. if we didn't believe that, we wouldn't sell them!

 

At Hydra-Slide, designing and building skidding systems is all we do, and we're passionate about our business.

If you want to know more, we'd love to hear from you.

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