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Minimisation of the Environmental Impacts of Coatings on Exterior Wood by Optimisation of their Life Spans
2003 - IRG/WP 03-50197
The study has shown that the environmental impacts from coatings on exterior wood are dependent criteria on their life spans. A minimisation of the environmental impacts can be performed with the help of the integrated design model, which is tested in this study. The optimal life spans, found as reference service lives from the exposure tests, statistical evaluation and the assessment of experts w...
L Strömberg


The critical timing of inspections for field testing of natural durability
1994 - IRG/WP 94-20018
An overestimation of performance will almost always result if the condition of a specimen is considered to be attained at the precise time that an inspection is carried out. The time at which the condition is actually attained, referred to in this document as the "Condition time", is best considered to be halfway between two successive inspections. The requirement to obtain data that is relevant t...
J D Thornton


Assessment of untreated Papua New Guinean timbers against subterranean termites. Progress Report 1
1990 - IRG/WP 1436
Eight major commercial timber species (Intsia palembanica, Pometia pinnata, Homalium foetidum, Dracontomelon dao, Calophyllum spp., Eucalyptus deglupta, Nothofagus spp., and Alstonia scholaris) were exposed in ground contact against termites. Five replicates of heartwood stakes of 25x25x250 mm³ of each species were randomly embedded in the soil. Results after 24 months exposure showed that Kwila ...
M Rokova, H C Konabe


Susceptibility of heartwood of three Pinus species to attack by the subterranean termite Coptotermes acinaciformis (Froggatt)
1994 - IRG/WP 94-20026
Heartwood of plantation-grown Pinus elliottii (slash pine), Pinus caribaea (Caribbean pine) and Pinus radiata (radiata pine) was obtained from a range of locations throughout Australia and New Zealand for use in a field bioassey with subterranean termites. Timber stock was analysed for a number of stilbene and flavonoid heartwood extractive components which could contribute to variation in suscept...
M J Kennedy, L L Dixon, B C Peters


Evaluation of extractives from African Padauk (Pterocarpus soyauxii Taub.) for protection of non decay resistant species
2002 - IRG/WP 02-10419
The development of a wood preservative made up of natural extracts is a potentially attractive prospect for the wood preservation industry. In this study, organic solvents were used to remove extractives from African padauk wood samples. The solvent was removed by rotoevaporation, and the total content of the viscous extracts determined to be 54.4mg/ml. The toxicity of various extracts concentrat...
P Nzokou, D P Kamdem


Natural durability of tamarack (Larix laricina (Du Roi) K. Koch)
1998 - IRG/WP 98-10277
Eastern larch or tamarack (Larix laricina (Du Roi) K. Koch) lumber from New Brunswick, Canada was evaluated for heartwood natural durability according to ASTM D2017-81. The natural durability of tamarack heartwood exposed to two brown rot fungi, Gloeophyllum trabeum and Postia placenta was low and generally inferior to that of the heartwood of spruce (Picea sp.) and white pine (Pinus strobus L.) a...
U Srinivasan, A Taylor, P A Cooper


A questionnaire survey to establish the perceptions of UK specifiers concerning the key material attributes of timer for use in marine and fresh water engineering
2004 - IRG/WP 04-10519
Engineers have a key role in making informed decisions on the type of materials to be used in the schemes they design and construct. Currently, in England and Wales, it is believed that some £500m per year is invested in flood and coastal defence engineering. There is a lack of centralised data in the UK holding information on timber for usage in fluvial and, particularly coastal engineering. A...
J R Williams, G S Sawyer, S M Cragg, J Simm


Variation in field test performance of untreated and CCA-treated lesser-known Surinamese wood species
2000 - IRG/WP 00-20213
In Suriname three different field test sites have been used to verify the biological durability of CCA-treated wood and a range of wood species including lesser-known and lesser-used wood species. In total 37 tropical wood species were tested untreated and for 17 of the less durable species CCA-treatments were included as well. Although the three sites are located in the tropical region they diffe...
J Van Acker, M Stevens, L Comvalius


Bamboo: A Material Rediscovered
2006 - IRG/WP 06-10577
Bamboo has resurfaced as a valuable raw material as an inexpensive substitute for wood and a variety of value added products for engineered composites. Being a fast growing material available in the tropics, its real value was not realized until recently. Property evaluation studies and efforts to develop processing methods were initiated in the bamboo growing countries in the nineteenth century....
S Kumar


On the changes of natural durability of wood sterilised by gamma radiation
2006 - IRG/WP 06-10571
The preliminary study data of natural durability of wood in lab conditions against rot fungi dependency on different sterilisation method have been presented. In the research, white rot fungus Schizophyllum commune Fr.: Fr. and brown rot fungus Poria placenta (Fries) Coke sensu J. Erikson. on the Scots pine were tested. Cobalt 60Co was used as a gamma radiation source at the dosage of 30 kGy. Cont...
R Despot, M Hasan, M Glavaš, G Rep


Laboratory Evaluation of Soft Rot Resistance of Non-Durable Lesser-Known Malaysian Hardwoods
2006 - IRG/WP 06-10582
Resistance of six non-durable lesser-known Malaysian hardwoods, Pulai (Alstonia spp.), Rubberwood (Hevea brasiliensis), Ludai (Sapium spp.), Jelutong (Dyera costulata), Gaham Badak (Blumeodendron tokbrai) and Kayu arang (Diospyros spp.) compared with temperate Scots pine sapwood (Pinus sylvestris), were evaluated using the unsterile soil burial (mixed with Chaetomium globosum) versus vermiculite-b...
A H H Wong


Comparative studies of natural durability of Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica D. Don) among the geographic cultivates
2006 - IRG/WP 06-10592
Variation of natural durability of Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica D. Don) (also known as Sugi) was investigated by accelerated tests for decay (Fomitopsis palustris (Berk. et Curt.) Murr.) and termite (Reticulitermes speratus Kolbe) attacks on 13 clones of Sugi trees from Kyushu-Okinawa Region (Fukuka, Ooita, Saga, Miyazaki, Kagoshima). For this purpose, 57 twenty-five years old Sugi trees o...
I Usta, K Takata, S Doi


Resistance of pine and spruce heartwood against decay - The effect of wood chemical composition and coating with water-borne wood oil product
2006 - IRG/WP 06-10597
Natural durability of wood has been widely studied, but the combination of the natural durability and different treatments has not been the focus of many studies. The durability of wooden products is mainly based on the water permeability and the resistance against organisms. In this study, the water absorption and decay resistance of sapwood and heartwood of Scots pine and Norway spruce were exam...
H Viitanen, S Metsä-Kortelainen, T Laakso


The natural durability of wood in different use classes - PART II
2006 - IRG/WP 06-10598
The natural durability of important European wood species has been tested on 3970 speci¬mens in field trials. The wood was exposed at five test sites in Germany with different climates, at each site in European use class 4 and 3 (with and without soil contact). Within European use class 3 three different expositions were tested: vertical with sheltered end grain, vertical unsheltered and horizont...
A O Rapp, U Augusta, K Brandt


Predicting the decay resistance of timber above-ground: 1. Climate effects
2006 - IRG/WP 06-20330
Despite the benefits of using timber as a building product, it is disadvantaged by current Australian Standard durability classifications which lack the sensitivity desired by engineers and architects. To address the need for more sensitive timber service-life information in Australia, an above-ground durability research program was established in 1987. One focus of research is the relationship be...
L P Francis, J Norton


Testing durability of treated wood according to EN 252. Interpretation of data from Nordic test fields
2006 - IRG/WP 06-20341
To evaluate the effectiveness of new wood preservatives intended for treated wood in ground use there is a European standard, EN 252. The test shall run for five years before any formal interpretation of the results can be made. Due to environmental concerns, the use of wood preservatives based on copper, chromium and arsenic (CCA) has been restricted in recent years. As a consequence of restrict...
M L Edlund, F G Evans, K Henriksen, T Nilsson


L-joint based testing for service life prediction of exterior plywood in out of ground contact conditions
2006 - IRG/WP 06-20342
Good biological performance of several plywood types in exterior conditions is most probably related to altered wood moisture behaviour compared to solid wood. Therefore a test set up was developed, using EN 330 L-joint testing methodology, to facilitate differentiation of plywood for exterior applications. The proposed test set up is an adaptation of an accelerated L-joint method introduced by V...
J De Smet, I De Windt, J Van Acker


Performance of boron-treated radiata pine in above ground field tests in New Zealand
2006 - IRG/WP 06-30406
Boron treatment was approved for exterior, above ground use in New Zealand in 1958, provide treated commodities were painted with a three-coat paint system. Above ground tests of rail units and L-joints were established at the NZ Forest Research Institute (now Scion) between 1967 and 1980 to monitor performance of boron treatment in relation to that of untreated and CCA-treated timber. Results sh...
M Hedley, D Page


Testing biological durability of wood-plastic composites
2006 - IRG/WP 06-20347
Testing biological durability is inherently different for wood-plastic composites (WPC) compared to solid timber. However there is clearly a need for more information on the durability of WPC’s, on the effect of decay on the material properties of WPC’s and on methods for assessing decay of WPC’s. For the emerging European WPC market there has been some discussions on how to work on these to...
J Van Acker


How to win friends and influence the market — Service Life Prediction and performance-based durability assessments of wood products in construction
2006 - IRG/WP 06-20348
Due to direct and implied demands from the market and from e.g. the EU Construction Products Directive, the need to supply service life estimates for building products is growing. For several years, a development of Service Life Prediction (SLP) methodologies has been going on, but the awareness of this development has hitherto reached only a very limited extent in the wood sector. For materials w...
F Englund


Qualitative and quantitative assessment of chemicals used for wood durability improvement by Near Infrared Spectroscopy
2006 - IRG/WP 06-20349
The Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) could be a suitable technique to assess chemicals used for wood durability improvement in the forest products industry. NIRS methodology can be used to obtain results more quickly, less costly and without damaging the wood. In this study, wood samples selected from heartwood and sapwood of Maritime Pine (Pinus pinaster) were prepared to assess the artificial d...
S Zahri, F Charrier, H Baillères, B Charrier


Improvement of Grevillea robusta durability using heat treatment
2006 - IRG/WP 06-40333
Heat treatment of Grevillea robusta was carried-out under inert conditions to improve its durability. Resistance of heat treated samples was evaluated by malt agar block tests after three months of exposure to several wood rotting fungi. Results showed that the fungal durability was greatly improved after treatment. There was a good correlation between fungal resistance and mass loss which is a fa...
F Mburu, S Dumarçay, F Huber, M Petrissans, P Gérardin


The commercialisation of ThermoWood® products
2006 - IRG/WP 06-40339
The concept of thermally modifying timber is well established, which has achieved a limited market breakthrough to date. Commercial application has mainly occurred within Finland, though recent years has seen market gain in several other European countries. This paper reviews the known properties of ThermoWood® timber, based on the combined work of the Finnish ThermoWood® Association, alongside ...
D Jones, E Suttie, J Ala-Viikari, N Bergstrom, D Mayes


Further discussion of biological durability assessments of acetylated wood from several European institutes
2006 - IRG/WP 06-40340
In the last decade, interest in the development of wood modification systems has increased in Europe. Alongside several industrial initiatives for heat treatments, there have also been scaling up and pilot plant projects for chemical wood modification. Between 2000-03, the European Commission funded the "Thematic Network on Wood Modification". This paper features a re-evaluation of work undertaken...
D Jones, W Homan, F Bongers


The Influence of Extractives on Western Redcedar’s Equilibrium Moisture Content
2006 - IRG/WP 06-40331
The high natural durability of western redcedar (Thuja plicata Donn) heartwood is often attributed to the presence of the thujaplicins, which are toxic to fungi. However, sound, twenty-five year old western redcedar shakes and shingles were found to contain only traces of the thujaplicins, but significant quantities of plicatic acid (which is only weakly toxic to fungi). This suggests that factors...
R Stirling, P I Morris


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