Summary
• Arch Timber Protection has expanded its Tanalised product range.
• Osmose continues to grow sales of its Micronised system.
• BASF/Wolman has made improvements to its CX product.
• The treatment sector is becoming more highly automated.

Timber as a product has a lot to shout about in terms of sustainability, its carbon credentials and its good aesthetics, so it’s important that it’s treated properly.

That’s the view of leading preservative treatment manufacturers and, with a number of new products hitting the market in the past 12 months, they are certainly doing their best to make sure this message gets through.

Arch Timber Protection, for example, has expanded its Tanalised product range to meet specific opportunities in several different markets. Tanalised Clear is the company’s newest option for preservative-treated timbers used in garden buildings, decking and cladding projects and cedar shingle applications.

“The treated timbers maintain a cleaner and brighter natural appearance for longer while still having a highly effective preservative protection for exterior out of ground contact, uncoated applications,” said David Law, marketing services manager.

Cladding

Cladding is a particular target and Arch said it would maintain the “longevity of the aesthetic appeal” of the product in a range of timber species, including pine, spruce, larch, Douglas fir and western red cedar.

Meanwhile, tapping into the growing demand for coloured treatments, Tanalith E Creol is a new treatment option designed to provide a durable and rich dark brown protection for outdoor timbers.

First impregnated with Tanalith E wood preservative under controlled conditions in a vacuum pressure plant, Tanalith E Creol treated timbers then have a surface application of Creol colourant. This solvent-based secondary treatment also imparts excellent water repellent properties to enhance the weathering protection and improve the dimensional stability of the timbers.

“Several customers are now offering this treatment primarily for garden and landscaping timbers,” said Mr Law. “It can also provide a high performance, rich colour option for cladding applications.”

Osmose continues to grow sales of its Micronised system – particularly into the European market. Designed as a “next generation copper treatment system”, it features copper in suspension in the treatment solution rather than dissolved, as with traditional alkaline copper quartenary (ACQ) products.

“By grinding the copper in a suspension, when it goes into the wood it makes it look very different,” said Osmose European marketing director Andy Hodge. “Instead of a dark green product it’s clear-looking.”

BASF/Wolman has made improvements to its CX product to gain more penetration into difficult to treat timbers. “We are bringing out CX-8 F in 2012, which has been formulated to try and deal with treating spruce better,” said Richard Gulland, technical sales UK for the company. “This is difficult as the cellular structure of spruce is not ideal for fluid uptakes.”

High-pressure treatments

There’s also been cause for optimism regarding sales of high-pressure preservatives. The market has traditionally seen a ‘dual spike’ with strong sales in the first few months of the year, a summer lull and then a pick-up in the autumn.

“This year has been a bit like that,” said Andy Hodge. “Because of the cold winter, people were looking for timber relatively early. But we have been relatively surprised by the positive trading signs in the market this year.”

However, he added that the low-pressure market – which is generally the province of the joinery and construction sectors – has been very much reduced, with lower volumes.

Mr Law agreed with this assessment, although added that it was “balanced out by fencing and landscaping markets and regional trends and specific market demands across Europe and Africa”.

“Within construction there is still growing interest in timber frame methods and products as specifiers continue to take up the environmental and performance benefits of timber,” he said.

“In value-added markets, such as decking, buildings and utilities, there is a real commitment from treatment companies to provide the highest quality long-term protection for the timbers for their customers.

“And even in lower margin markets, such as fencing, more and more of our customers are working directly with us to help ensure they get the very best from our preservative products and from the treatment/application process to produce end products their customers can have real confidence in.”

The economic conditions have led to a reduction in the numbers of timber companies starting their own treatment facilities, although there are positive signs of a return.

“What we have seen is a tremendous amount of investment in the Swedish sector, with companies like Varberg Timber AB installing very mechanised preservation treatment facilities which can operate automatically 24 hours a day,” said Mr Hodge.

“We are seeing a lot more automation coming in to the treatment industry with a higher quality product coming out at the end. In the UK, the recession might have stopped investment but people are still planning and looking forward to [an improved economy], and we will probably see this type of automation coming to larger mills in the UK.”

Rapid growth

One company that has expanded is WJ Timber Treatments in Hull. The company has experienced rapid growth over the last three years – an impressive performance given the background market conditions.

“The focus is on giving exceptional service combined with good value and this has reaped its rewards with most business now coming from regular customers,” said managing director Mark Eggleston.

WJ Timber Treatments now processes more than 45,000m³ of timber per year by either high or low pressure, all treatments being conducted within the scope of its ISO 9001 registration, including treatments for National Highways Sector Scheme 4 – which covers preservative treatment of fencing materials.

WJ Timber Treatments recently started to offer fire retardant treatments using Wolman’s Firestop, a first in the UK, and both the product and WJ’s treatment plants are Approved in the WPA Fire Retardant Manual 2010.

“There was a lot of work involved in getting ISO 9000 approval for all our operations but we are starting to see the benefits now as customers appreciate that when they ask for timber to be treated to a particular standard they can rely on us to get it right,” said Mr Eggleston. “We do a lot of monitoring of treated wood to check we achieve the right retentions to deliver the expected performance against decay or fire hazards.”

Another area where preservatives suppliers continue to focus is on environmental credentials. Arch says the introduction of its metal-free Tanalith M wood preservative to produce Tanalised Clear treated timbers has started to “produce real interest from specifiers and the trade, not only in the improved environmental credentials but also in the niche opportunities it can provide in strong markets such as cladding, decking and timber buildings”.

Product upgrades

Meanwhile, Osmose’s Andy Hodge says the company is continually thinking of product upgrades. “We are at a stage where our preservative systems aren’t under any real environmental threat,” he said.”But we can start looking at the leaching of the products; we can start looking at using recycled copper and those things which produce a better life cycle of the product and allow us to get some environmental accreditation behind it.”

Richard Gulland agrees. “Sustainability is key for the future growth of the UK timber market, and only with good chemicals, good treatments and the right species, will we be able to produce quality products.”