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Conforming to european standards for preservative-treated timber: Specifying with confidence
2000 - IRG/WP 00-20194
A four-year collaborative study between four industrial partners and BRE has assessed timber treated by current UK industrial practices in the light of current European Standards. Data were collected for CCA and creosote treated timber components, and compared with the requirements laid out in EN351-1 and -2. A number of difficulties were encountered that have been described in previous IRG papers...
E D Suttie, R J Orsler


In ground contact field trial results of preservative treated incised and unincised spruce
1996 - IRG/WP 96-40076
Field trials of treated spruce stakes have been demonstrated that incising the stake before treatment improves the preservative uptake both for CCA and creosote. This results in a substantially extended service life for the incised stakes over the unincised stakes for preservative concentrations at commercial levels. After 24 years in ground contact the majority of incised spruce samples are sound...
E D Suttie


Environmental risk assessment of treated timber in service: The Environment Focus Group approach
2000 - IRG/WP 00-50162
In the context of the Biocidal Products Directive (98/8/EC), and of the OECD work on wood preservatives, the Environment Focus Group (EFG), comprising 8 institutes and the European Wood Preservative Manufacturers Group, has been working on the environmental risk assessment of treated timber in service. A literature review of emissions from treated timber has revealed that very little existing data...
G Deroubaix, G Labat, I Le Bayon, S Legay, P Marchal, C Yrieix, E Melcher, R-D Peek, S De Geyter, J Van Acker, W J Homan, D J Dickinson, R J Murphy, E D Suttie, A J Nurmi, A-C Ritschkoff, D Rudolph, I Stephan, D Aston, E F Baines, J B Simonin


The influence of the natural extractives of opepe (Nauclea diderrichii) and African padauk (Pterocarpus soyauxii) timbers on their durability
1996 - IRG/WP 96-30098
Many timbers contain chemical extractives that undoubtedly play a key role in the timber's natural durability. Opepe (Nauclea diderrichii) and padauk (Pterocarpus sp.) are both very durable timbers (class 1), yet they are described as being moderately permeable. This suggests the presence of biocidal chemicals within these timbers, rather than simple blocking agents. Initial trials on the...
E D Suttie, R J Orsler


Durable fibre for durable MDF – testing Tricoya®
2015 - IRG/WP 15-40704
The chemical modification of wood has been a commercial reality for a decade on release of technologies for the modification of solid wood including Accoya®. A challenge and an opportunity for the modification technologies which typically impart dimensional stability, water stability and enhanced biological durability was the adaptation of the technology to wood based panels. This paper presents ...
E Suttie, J Alexander, M Maes


Alternatives to CCA for ground contact protection of timber: a perspective from UK on performance and service life expectations
2002 - IRG/WP 02-30289
The proposed amendment to the European Union's Marketing and Use Directive (1976/769/EEC) in respect of arsenic in CCA wood preservatives seeks to restrict the use of CCA across the European Union. CCA is an extremely important wood preservative in the UK from the manufacturing of the product to the extent of use of CCA-treated timber. Based on our experience and judgement on the use of ...
E D Suttie, A F Bravery, T B Dearling


The natural durability assessments of secondary timber species - field trials
1998 - IRG/WP 98-10297
Secondary or 'alternative' hardwood timber species can replace traditional hardwoods and contribute significantly to satisfying the overall demand for hardwoods in the UK timber market. A selection of these 'alternative' hardwoods is currently being tested at BRE-WTC for natural durability both in ground contact (to EN252) at two field sites, and out of ground c...
E D Suttie, R J Orsler


Preliminary studies of the performance of iron chelators as inhibitors of brown rot (Coniophora puteana) attack
1996 - IRG/WP 96-10185
This paper describes experiments to examine the proposal that the presence of iron is essential for brown rot fungi to utilize hydroxyl radicals remote from the hyphae as a means of converting the wood into a food source. reliminary test results are presented from trials using three different iron chelators impregnated into Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) sapwood blocks. Their relative effects on th...
E D Suttie, R J Orsler, P M Wood


Assessing the importance of degradation mechanisms on the loss of effectiveness of wood preservatives
2000 - IRG/WP 00-20193
Accelerated ageing systems developed for application to samples in the laboratory prior to biological tests, should reflect those natural deterioration processes that are likely to occur in the hazard classes defined in EN 335-1. Losses through evaporation or the effects of leaching have been recognised, however their importance, relative to other mechanisms has not been quantified. Degradation me...
E D Suttie, R J Orsler, T Dearling


Assessing the bioresistance conferred to solid wood by chemical modification
1997 - IRG/WP 97-40099
The chemical modification of wood using straight chain alkyl anhydrides can considerably enhance its durability. This paper presents an assessment of the effectiveness of these modifiers in improving the biological resistance of a susceptible softwood when exposed to four different basidiomycete fungi, soft rots and the larvae of the house longhorn beetle (Hylotrupes bajulus). It was clear that so...
E D Suttie, C A S Hill, D Jones, R J Orsler


Assessing health risks to occupants following remedial insecticidal treatment of timber in dwellings
1998 - IRG/WP 98-50101-27
Experiments have been carried out to assess (i) the aerial concentrations of volatile wood preservative constituents, and (ii) the potential for contamination from treated surfaces, following in situ insecticidal treatment of timbers in dwellings. Using white spirit as a model for volatile constituents in the treatment of free-standing, wood-lined chambers indicated that temperature and air exchan...
R J Orsler, E D Suttie, V Rijckaert


A review of the implementation of results-based standards for preservative treated timber
1999 - IRG/WP 99-20156
European standards for the specification of preservative treated timber are written in terms of the results achieved in the commodity by the treatment process. This is described in terms of penetration and retention of preservative. Results from a study on the commercial application of this approach in the UK show the difficulties associated with applying the new European standards; particularly w...
E D Suttie, A S Hughes, R J Orsler


Specifying preservative-treated resistant timber: Conforming to European Standards
2001 - IRG/WP 01-20235
The most common construction timbers used in the UK are of low natural durability and, generally, resistant to preservative treatment. These include species of spruce, hemlock and fir. However, their characteristically limited and non-uniform uptake of preservatives may still confer sufficient protection to give satisfactory durability performance in terms of biological resistance. This paper desc...
E D Suttie, A F Bravery, T B Dearling


A field study on the suitability of the European lap-joint test
2001 - IRG/WP 01-20239
Within the framework of the European SM&T Research Project "Co-normative research on field tests for wood preservatives out of ground contact in conjunction with methods for preconditioning test specimens prior to test" (FACT) one aim was to establish the suitability of the European lap-joint test (as it is described in ENV 12037:1996) to assess wood preservatives in the field in EHC 3. Scots ...
M Grinda, Ö Bergman, H-V Borck, D Dickinson, P Esser, R Gründlinger, H Leithoff, S Molnar, L Paajanen, N Pfabigan, E D Suttie, F Thomassin, T Nilsson, J Van Acker, M Van Der Zee, A Voss


Conforming to European standards on preservative treatment
1998 - IRG/WP 98-20150
New European standards require that specifications for the preservative treatment of timber are written in terms of the penetration and retention of preservative within the treated commodity that result from the treatment process. In order to check compliance with this type of specification, suitable methods of quantitative analysis must be available. This paper presents the results of a study by ...
E D Suttie, R J Orsler


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


Service life prediction for exterior timber cladding
2010 - IRG/WP 10-20460
This discussion paper considers service life prediction for timber and the work within the pan-European WoodExter project. The project aims to develop a model for service life prediction of exterior timber cladding, to enable better end use selection of material suitable for delivering the required service life of cladding and to provide information for professionals wanting to understand and use ...
E Suttie, F Englund


Quantitative design guideline for wood outdoors above ground applications
2011 - IRG/WP 11-20465
This paper describes the background and principles behind an engineering design guideline for wood in outdoor above ground applications, i.e. use class 3 according to EN 335. The guideline has been developed in the European research project WoodExter and can be seen as a first prototype for a quantitative design tool in the area of wood durability. It is based on a defined limit state for onset of...
S Thelandersson, T Isaksson, E Suttie, E Frühwald, T Toratti, G Grüll, H Viitanen, J Jermer


The potential of propolis and other naturally occurring products for preventing biological decay
2011 - IRG/WP 11-30575
The potential of using a range of naturally occurring plant extracts and propolis from bee hives for enhancing the durability of timber in service as well as helping with the conservation of archaeological timbers is considered in this paper. Results reported demonstrate that there is some degree of protective effect noted, suggesting a viable treatment option might be developed based on a deeper ...
D Jones, N Howard, E Suttie


Grading UK Grown Larch for Durability
2013 - IRG/WP 13-10809
This paper reports on a joint study by BRE, the Forest Products Research Institute and TRADA Technology into the feasibility of grading UK grown larch to maximise its natural durability. The research was undertaken to assist sawmills and timber specifiers in the selection of larch timber suitable for external cladding. The findings indicate that the heartwood of larch has variable durability due t...
D Jones, I Davies, P Sharphouse, E Suttie


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


The resistance of high performance acetylated wood to attack by wood-destroying fungi and termites
2013 - IRG/WP 13-40621
The resistance of high acetyl solid timber (Accoya) and medium density fibreboard (Tricoya) to attack by wood-destroying fungi and termites was investigated under both laboratory and field conditions. Laboratory studies were conducted in Japan, New Zealand and USA. Field studies were conducted in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Thailand and UK. The results of the laboratory and field studies agains...
J Alexander, J Hague, M Roberts, Y Imamura, F Bongers, E Suttie


Performance standards for wood in construction – delivering customer service life requirements
2013 - IRG/WP 13-20537
There is increasing need for consideration of performance classification for wood products in construction, as evidenced by the CPR, warranty providers and end user demands for information. This means we need to radically consider how the tests we conduct on wood for durability (especially biological durability) can inform on service life and how they might if possible be translated into a perform...
E Suttie, C Brischke, F Englund, E Heisel, J Jermer, D Lorenzo, M Polášek, S Thelandersson, J Van Acker


Performance classification of wood in construction – drafting a user friendly European standard
2014 - IRG/WP 14-20545
The performance classification for wood products in construction is an extremely important topic in Europe and beyond – warranty providers and end users demand service life and performance information in the face of competition with other materials. The European project PerformWOOD has formalised and drawn together the on-going research to focus on generation of a material resistance factor for ...
E Suttie, C Brischke, L Meyer, J Van Acker, M Kutnik, E Heisel, F Englund, J Jermer, S Thelandersson, M Polášek, D Lorenzo


Introduction of the COST FP 1303 Cooperative Performance Test
2015 - IRG/WP 15-20567
COST Action FP 1303 “Performance of bio-based building materials” successfully started in October 2013 and an ambitious program was set up for the four year programme. COST Actions provide an excellent opportunity for collaborative research, e.g. in the frame of Round Robin tests. The idea of this respective test was to distribute a fairly simple test set up to as many places in Europe as poss...
M Humar, C Brischke, L Meyer, B Lesar, N Thaler, D Jones, S Bardage, C Belloncle, J Van den Bulcke, J M Abascal, G Alfredsen, D Baisch, B Brunnhuber, G Cofta, E Grodås, E Frühwald Hansson, M Irle, H Kallakas, J Kers, M Klamer, P Larsson Brelid, A B Maider, K C Mahnert, E Melcher, R Möller, M Noël, L Nunes, G A Ormondroyd, S Palanti, N Pfabigan, A Pilgård, A O Rapp, P Schumacher, E Suttie, T Teppand, M Touza, J Van Acker


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