Balsa vs. ZA-12
Balsa and ZA-12 belong to fundamentally different material chemistries. Balsa is a polymeric material, while ZA-12 is a metal. Therefore, their performance will be even more dissimilar than would be suggested by the difference in properties. There are 15 material properties with values for both materials. Properties with values for just one material (22, 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 ZA-12.
Metric UnitsUS Customary Units
Mechanical Properties
| Compressive (Crushing) Strength, MPa | 7.0 | |
| 230 to 270 |
| Elastic (Young's, Tensile) Modulus, GPa | 3.0 | |
| 83 |
| Elongation at Break, % | 1.2 | |
| 1.6 to 5.3 |
| Poisson's Ratio | 0.38 | |
| 0.26 |
| Shear Modulus, GPa | 0.23 | |
| 33 |
| Tensile Strength: Ultimate (UTS), MPa | 14 | |
| 260 to 400 |
Thermal Properties
| Specific Heat Capacity, J/kg-K | 1700 | |
| 450 |
| Thermal Conductivity, W/m-K | 0.1 | |
| 120 |
| Thermal Expansion, µm/m-K | 6.5 | |
| 24 |
Otherwise Unclassified Properties
| Density, g/cm3 | 0.13 | |
| 6.0 |
Common Calculations
| Stiffness to Weight: Axial, points | 13 | |
| 7.6 |
| Strength to Weight: Axial, points | 30 | |
| 12 to 19 |
| Strength to Weight: Bending, points | 99 | |
| 15 to 20 |
| Thermal Diffusivity, mm2/s | 0.45 | |
| 43 |
| Thermal Shock Resistance, points | 51 | |
| 9.4 to 14 |