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Soft-rot testing. Memo to CEN
1983 - IRG/WP 2206 A
1. Development of a single test procedure to assess performance of preservatives against soft rot fungi is an ideal that cannot be realised at present, if results are to be both reproducible between laboratories and pertinent to the practical requirements of individual countries. 2. Consensus opinion amongst members of Sub Group I - Soft rot tests, of Working Group II - Fundamentals of Testing, of the IRG, is that the immediate needs of CEN would be best answered by: (a) a code of recommended practice, (b) a multiplicity of test procedures, and (c) a degree of flexibility in test procedures. 3. The code of recommended practice should recognise the need for: (a) a pure culture, synthetic medium (sand or vermiculite + nutrients), single wood species test to be adopted by all laboratories as a common reference point of testing, (b) mixed inoculum and/or unsterile soil laboratory or fungus cellar tests which account for local variations in the fungal flora, (c) incorporation of a range of wood species where applicable (i.e. where mixed hardwoods comprise the main resource), (d) provision of local internal standards of known performance under field conditions, (e) incorporation of leaching procedures other than standard methods with deionized water (e.g. mild acid, milk alkali, ionic solutions of various salts) where applicable to local exposure conditions, (f) precise definition of the criteria used for establishing toxic thresholds (mass loss, strength loss, microscopic examination). 4. Initial screening tests should remain the province of the individual research worker. 5. The code of recommended practice should have the sole purpose of establishing provisional retention levels for subsequent confirmation by field trial. 6. IRG should list and approve test procedures considered adequate to establish toxic thresholds for preservatives against soft rot fungi. 7. It should be clearly understood that when using a series of test techniques, it is inevitable that a range of toxic thresholds will be obtained for the same preservative. 8. Guidelines should be drawn up for interpretation of test data for subsequent transformation to provisional retention levels. 9. Adoption of the broad principles outlines above is recognition of the dynamic nature of toxic thresholds. The additional information obtained by a more flexible, and complex, approach to testing may make interpretation more difficult but should provide data from which response of preservatives to varying biological and environmental hazards can be more realistically assessed. 10. It is recommended that CEN adopt, in principle, the basic philosophy of testing outlined above and move towards formulation of a Working Document in collaboration with IRG
J A Butcher, D J Dickinson


International co-operation in wood preservation research
1979 - IRG/WP 3145
If one searched the literature, one could find many examples of international co-operation in the field of research in wood preservation. For example, individual workers in different countries in Europe have got together and made replicate tests with both fungi and insects on various preservatives of common interest and their results have been published. Much co-operation has not had its results p...
R Cockcroft


Visual Inspection – How Important is the Influence of the Evaluator?
2013 - IRG/WP 13-20521
Visual inspection is often a crucial means of judging the efficacy and performance of a preservative. It is used in non-destructive testing in long term exposure trials or simply, when the practical use and precision of the human eye is a good means of measure. As for the procedure described in EN 252, the impression of softness due to decay of the wood has also to be considered. Although, a thumb...
M Klamer, P Larsson Brelid, I Stephan


Report on COST E37 Round Robin Tests – Comparison of results from laboratory and field tests
2013 - IRG/WP 13-20535
A round robin involving 15 European participants was set up in 2006. The round robin consists of both a field test according to the double layer test method and a laboratory test with two different preconditioning methods. When comparing EN 84 preconditioning (two weeks water leaching) with natural preconditioning (1 year in field, above ground) according to CEN/TS 15397, no significant difference...
M Westin, E Conti, J Creemers, P-O Flæte, A Gellerich, I Irbe, M Klamer, B Mazela, E Melcher, R Möller, L Nunes, S Palanti, L Reinprecht, E Suttie, H Viitanen


10 year Report on COST E37 Round Robin Tests – Comparison of results from laboratory and field tests
2017 - IRG/WP 17-30718
A round robin involving 15 European participants was set up in 2006. The round robin consisted of both a field test according to the double layer test method and a laboratory test with two different preconditioning methods. The laboratory test results were reported in an earlier IRG paper (IRG/WP13-20535) but are included also in this paper in order to facilitate the comparison with the field test...
M Westin, E Conti, J Creemers, P-O Flæte, A Gellerich, I Irbe, M Klamer, E Melcher, R Moeller, L Nunes, S Palanti, L Reinprecht, E Suttie, H Viitanen


Towards durability classification of preservative treated wood – first attempts using different European standards
2018 - RG/WP 18-20638
EN 350 (2016) gives guidance on methods for determining and classifying the durability of wood and wood-based material against biological wood destroying agents. “Wood-based materials are those derived from trees and include amongst others: untreated wood, heat treated wood, chemically modified wood, glue laminated wood, wood-based panels, wood polymer composites and wood treated with wood prese...
S Bollmus, A Gellerich, C Brischke, H Militz


Durability classification of preservative treated and modified wood
2019 - IRG/WP 19-20659
EN 350 (2016) allows formally to determine durability classes (DC) for wood products and wood-based materials, which was previously only possible for untreated wood in the form of natural durability. In a first study, the University of Goettingen carried out the durability classification of chemically modified (modified with 1,3-dimethylol-4,5-dihydroxyethyleneurea, DMDHEU) and preservative-treate...
S Bollmus, L Bachle, C Brischke, H Militz


International joint field trial on the moisture performance of wood – Set up and first results
2024 - IRG/WP 24-40996
Wood durability to decay stems from its inherent resistance to fungi resistance to fungi. In this regard, wood's ability to withstand moisture uptake plays an important role as the lower threshold for wood decay is a moisture content of 25%. However, the aspect of moisture resistance is not yet sufficiently emphasized as a durability factor, both in the assessment of durability as a material prope...
C Brischke, et al. (33 co-authors)


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