10 | Tech News
WPA Awards celebrate excellence
Above: The trophies were made from Accoya Color by Handrail Creations
This year’s WPA Wood Protection Industry Awards & Conference took place at the Windmill Hotel, Coventry on June 29-30. “This ever popular two-day event goes from strength-to-strength,” said Gordon Ewbank, WPA director. “In uncertain trading times, it’s always good to remind ourselves that wood protection technologies help to make the most of wood as a modern, sustainable building
material and to celebrate the very best design projects in the sector.” This year’s main event sponsors were Arxada, BSW Group and Impra, while Accsys Technologies worked with the WPA team to create the beautiful 2022 Awards. These were made from Accoya Color – a new innovative product, which is coloured grey from surface to core. The grey colour pre-empts the process of natural weathering, ensuring a consistently beautiful appearance from day one. Handrail Creations skilfully crafted the award from the original template.
The award winners were as follows: Flame Retardant Treated Wood Project of the Year: Woodsafe, for the Illulissat Icefjord Centre, Greenland (see p5). Interior oak panels adorn this fantastic building, all treated with Woodsafe PRO flame retardant. Modified Wood Project of the Year Award: Accsys Technologies, for the innovative use of an Accoya façade and mullions in the Google HQ project in London, which is currently under construction.
Archroma launches new wood protection technology Archroma, a global leader in specialty
chemicals towards sustainable solutions, has introduced Siligen MIH liq, which is a new biocide-free wood protection technology. It has developed this together with the University of Goettingen in Germany.
The launch took place at the Annual Conference of the International Research Group on Wood Protection (IRG WP) IRG53 conference held from May 29 to June 2, 2022 in Bled, Slovenia. Siligen MIH liq is a non-biocidal wood modification treatment designed to create more stable and durable solid woods, veneers and wood-based composites for applications such as windows, cladding, outdoor furniture, decking, in-ground platforms, parquet flooring and marine applications.
It is applied by impregnation and subsequent drying. Siligen MIH liq impregnated wood can be dried and the molecules fixed at <80°C with equipment already available at most production facilities applying conventional biocides. The energy consumption is thus similar to most aqueous biocidal wood preservative treatments.
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Preservative Treated Wood Project: Marley, for the use of CitiDeck 30-year life, anti-slip decking construction at Clifford’s Tower, York. WPA Trader of the Year: BSW Timber for outstanding customer service and the BSW Big Book marketing initiative.
The half day conference on the following morning got to grips with the big issues and talking points of the wood protection industry. Charlie Law, Timber Development UK (TDUK) sustainability director spoke on the role of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), while Ed Suttie, director (research) at BRE presented the year seven performance results of the WPA field trial of preservative impregnated fence posts (see p74).
This was followed by David Hopkins, managing director of the TDUK, who updated delegates on the treated wood action plan and progress towards independent QA of treatment processes; and Callum Hill, of JCH Industrial Ecology Ltd, who posed the question, ‘Wood modification: hope or hype?’.
Archroma says that wood treated with Siligen MIH liq shows excellent protection against decay fungi and that treated wood displays improved weathering performance and keeps its natural appearance with fewer discolourations.
“Our research has been focusing for many years on the development of new wood protection systems,” said Professor Holger Militz, head of the Department of Wood Biology and Wood Products at the University of Göttingen.
“With Siligen MIH we explored a system where the wood is protected against fungi and termites without the need for complicated treatment technology,” added Prof Militz.
“Existing vacuum and pressure plants and normal wood dryers are sufficient to use this new technology,” he said. “We are very excited to collaborate with
like-minded partners such as the University of Goettingen,” added Miquel Vila, global head of new markets at Archroma. “The new biocide-free wood protection technology Siligen MIH liq is a great illustration of ‘The Archroma Way to a Sustainable World: Safe, efficient, enhanced, it’s our nature’.”
Fire safety meets style in Liverpool Materials Lab
All the Shapes Tile & Co (ATS), is focusing on fire-safe timber construction at a new site in Liverpool. To achieve this goal, the 9,000ft2
‘Materials Lab’, which serves as
ATS’s main showroom, will feature display areas built using MEDITE SMARTPLY’s SMARTPLY MAX FR B panels, featuring Zeroignition (Zi) technology. The project will see the entire interior clad with SMARTPLY MAX FR B, integrated with Zi non-toxic flame- retardant solution, as well as a new partition wall using the same material. Almost 200 18mm boards of SMARTPLY MAX FR B were specified on the project, covering an area of 540m2
.
The Zeroignition solution is applied to the panels during manufacture, ensuring the timber is protected throughout the entire depth, not just the surface layer. “It is promising to see fire safety prioritised within new regeneration projects such as the ATS site,” said Ian King, Zeroignition chief operating officer. “We are huge advocates for timber construction and it is time to address the barriers surrounding fire safety.”
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