14 DAY TRIAL // Fujitsu plans to introduce an innovative notebook design, that aims at replacing plastics and other polymers in the casing with eco-friendly, bio-degradable wood. Modern designs are usually based on plastics and metal, but they have an extremely destructive impact over the environment.
Although the laptop is in its early stage, the prototype unit is built of cedar wood for the case, while the parts are manufactured using bio-plastic and recycled polymers. According to the manufacturer, bio-plastics are produced from renewable sources such as vegetable oil, and not petroleum, as in the case of regular plastics.
The new eco-friendly prototype is the result of a tight collaboration between notebook vendor Fujitsu and the Japanese design team Monacca, that specializes in designing wooden products. The Japanese designer has a rich tradition in designing wooden objects, such as furniture, wooden bags and even a fully-fledged desktop PC casings with a circular shape.
Fujitsu's idea of using wood instead of plastics is not new at all. The company has had some previous attempts at replacing the conventional plastics with bio-plastics in its notebook line-up. More than that, Fujitsu managed to achieve a corn-based bio-plastic shell for one of its notebook models, now on sale on the Japanese market.
The environmentally-friendly notebook, called the FMV Biblo, was built with biodegradable polylactic acid (PLA). Nowadays, Fujitsu's attention shifted to castor-oil-based polymers that offer superior flexibility over the conventional plastics, but at the same time, they preserve a low environmental footprint.
Despite the fact that creating a wooden notebook is possible, the market for such a device would be extremely limited, mostly because of the European and US sales restrictions. For instance, in order for the notebook to get green light on the US market, the product would have to pass certification, and one of the toughest requirements is the UL and ISO flame-retardation tests.