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Balsa vs. PSU

Balsa belongs to the wood-based materials classification, while PSU belongs to the thermoplastics. There are 8 material properties with values for both materials. Properties with values for just one material (14, in this case) are not shown. Please note that the two materials have significantly dissimilar densities. This means that additional care is required when interpreting the data, because some material properties are based on units of mass, while others are based on units of area or volume.

For each property being compared, the top bar is balsa and the bottom bar is PSU.

Metric UnitsUS Customary Units

Material Properties

Compressive (Crushing) Strength, MPa 7.0
95 to 180
Density, g/cm3 0.13
1.2 to 1.6
Elongation at Break, % 1.2
2.0 to 52
Specific Heat Capacity, J/kg-K 1700
910 to 1000
Strength to Weight: Axial, points 30
16 to 25
Strength to Weight: Bending, points 99
30 to 40
Tensile Strength: Ultimate (UTS), MPa 14
70 to 140
Thermal Expansion, µm/m-K 6.5
25 to 57