Mycelium-Based Composites (MBCs) are innovative engineering materials made from lignocellulosic by-products bonded with fungal mycelium. While some performance characteristics of MBCs are inferior to those of currently used engineering materials, these composites nevertheless prove to be superior in ecological aspects. Improving the properties of MBCs may be achieved using an adequate substrate type, fungus species, and manufacturing technology. This article presents scientifically verified guiding principles for choosing a fungus species to obtain the desired effect. This aim was realized based on analyses of scientific articles concerning MBCs, mycological literature, and patent documents. Based on these analyses, over 70 fungi species used to manufacture MBC have been identified and the most commonly used combinations of fungi species-substrate-manufacturing technology are presented. The main result of this review was to demonstrate the characteristics of the fungi considered optimal in terms of the resulting engineering material properties. Thus, a list of the 11 main fungus characteristics that increase the effectiveness in the engineering material formation include: rapid hyphae growth, high virulence, dimitic or trimitic hyphal system, white rot decay type, high versatility in nutrition, high tolerance to a substrate, environmental parameters, susceptibility to readily controlled factors, easy to deactivate, saprophytic, non-mycotoxic, and capability to biosynthesize natural active substances. An additional analysis result is a list of the names of fungus species, the types of substrates used, the applications of the material produced, and the main findings reported in the scientific literature.

Mycelium-based composites (MBCs) have attracted growing attention due to their role in the development of eco-design methods. We concurrently analysed scientific publications, patent documents, and results of our own feasibility studies to identify the current design issues and technologies used. A literature inquiry in scientific and patent databases (WoS, Scopus, The Lens, Google Patents) pointed to 92 scientific publications and 212 patent documents. As a part of our own technological experiments, we have created several prototype products used in architectural interior design. Following the synthesis, these sources of knowledge can be concluded: 1. MBCs are inexpensive in production, ecological, and offer a high artistic value. Their weaknesses are insufficient load capacity, unfavourable water affinity, and unknown reliability. 2. The scientific literature shows that the material parameters of MBCs can be adjusted to certain needs, but there are almost infinite combinations: properties of the input biomaterials, characteristics of the fungi species, and possible parameters during the growth and subsequent processing of the MBCs. 3. The patent documents show the need for development: an effective method to increase the density and the search for technologies to obtain a more homogeneous internal structure of the composite material. 4. Our own experiments with the production of various everyday objects indicate that some disadvantages of MBCs can be considered advantages. Such an unexpected advantage is the interesting surface texture resulting from the natural inhomogeneity of the internal structure of MBCs, which can be controlled to some extent.

Wood dust poses a threat to the health of employees and the risk of explosion and fire, accelerates the wear of machines, worsens the quality of processing, and requires large financial outlays for its removal. The aim of this study was to investigate the extent to which the grit size of sandpaper influences the size of the wood dust particles and the proportion of the finest particles which, when dispersed in the air, may constitute the respirable fraction. Six species of hardwood (beech, oak, ash, hornbeam, alder, and walnut), and three species of softwood (larch, pine, and spruce) were used in the research. While sanding the samples under the established laboratory conditions, the following were measured for two types of sandpapers (grit sizes P60 and P180): mean arithmetic particle size of dust and finest dust particles content (<10 µm). Based on the obtained results, we found that the largest dust particle sizes were obtained for alder, pine, and spruce; the smallest size of dust particles during sanding with both sandpapers was obtained for beech, hornbeam, oak, ash, larch, and walnut. The mean arithmetic particle sizes ranged from 327.98 µm for pine to 104.23 µm for hornbeam. The mean particle size of the dust obtained with P60 granulation paper was 1.4 times larger than that of the dust obtained with P180 granulation sandpaper. The content of the finest dust particles ranged from 0.21% for pine (P60 sandpaper) to 12.58% for beech (P180 sandpaper).The type of wood (hardwood or softwood) has a significant influence on the particle size and the content of the finest dust fraction.

The material indices method has its application in both the design of construction materials and products. The method has evolved since the 1960s and has been described in German, Russian, Polish, and English scientific literature. In the 1990s, the method was adapted to Design for the Environment with the inclusion of specific energy consumption indicators for various construction materials. The article cites six principles of Design for the Environment and presents specific energy consumption indicators according to various authors. This data was then used in two sample applications of the material indices method to determine the specific energy consumption of product manufacture: of a support structure of the standing frame and a compression spring design. In the conclusions, the significant limitations of the material indices method are emphasized, which are not extensively discussed in the literature on the subject, such as its high sensitivity to the accuracy of the adopted energy consumption indicators for materials in view of the actual production process; not taking into consideration all the negative aspects of the materials’ impact on the environment, or the difficulties associated with predicting the impact of material production technology on the material indices. On the other hand, their simple functional form makes them ideal for incorporation into modern CAD software and in product optimization at the initial stage of concept design.

The article describes the results of the review and analyses of the patent literature relating to screws for wood materials used in the furniture manufacturing and in building construction. Based on the queries performed in several databases, 611 patent families containing 1031 unique patent documents from 1902 to 2017 have been identified. These documents were analyzed, and as a result, an overview was obtained containing screw inventions that are the most influential for the present state of the art of joinery. The number of forward citations and sizes of patent families were considered in the identification of the inventions recognized as the most influential. Additionally, the oldest often-cited screw patents were also quoted. As a result, eight very significant screw inventions were identified and the types of technical issues that these inventions solve were indicated. Additionally, these results were confronted with topics taken in scientific literature. This confrontation points to the weak link between scientific literature and patent literature in the field of threaded fastener for wood materials.