Wood is the most versatile, practical and sustainable building material in the world. In modern countries, wood is a well-managed renewable resource that has a small carbon footprint. Wood does suffer from a lack of durability against invasive organisms such as insects and fungi. Steel, aluminum and composites have emerged as viable alternative building materials. These sectors market the deficiencies of wood to better position their products. As these materials continue to take market share away from wood, the need to cost-effectively increase the durability of wood remains an always present target within the forest products industry. The use of chemical treatments to impart fungal and insect resistance into wood has been utilized for over a century. Today, many of these preservatives are delivered into the wood using the same decades-old methods and chemicals. The development of buffered amine oxides treatment systems (known commercially as TRU-CORE® Technology) for use in wood preservation has allowed significant modernization of the application and preservation process. The buffered amine oxides allow for a chemically based infusion process that is capable of delivering key wood protectants completely throughout the wood. This waterbased system imparts a minimal amount of added moisture into the wood during the process, so there is no need to dry after treatment. A short activation period is utilized to achieve full penetration. For larger wood profiles, such as decking members and railroad crossties, the use of pressure/vacuum impregnation accelerates the penetration. The Buffered Amine Oxide Treatment System is in commercial use in the United States, New Zealand and Australia; where numerous programs have been developed for residential and industrial wood products. The most modern buffered amine oxide treatment system was designed to impart ammonical copper based wood preservatives into decking profiles.

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