Wood Protection – natural exposure
testing of commercial products according to the CEN standard
The committee charged with developing a European standard for
exterior wood coatings (CEN TC139/WG2) has been successful in
developing a consensus around common test methods. However, there
has been less progress in agreeing a performance standard which
would indicate how well a particular product performs according
to the test, for example, setting the performance levels to judge
whether a product passes or fails the test.
The core of the proposal is to test a wide variety of European
commercial products according to the standard European protocol
for exterior exposure. In addition, experimental products could
also be included, together with suggested starting formulations
from raw material suppliers. The identification of individual
products will be concealed through random coding, except for the
supplier of that product.
It is anticipated that test results can be used as follows:
- To show participants how their product ranks in
comparison to other commercial and experimental products
- To provide independent test data which can be used by
participants to promote their products to their customers
- To generate data for the CEN committee to facilitate
setting performance limits for the European standard.
In addition, participants will be polled for their interest in
testing variations on the standard test, for example, extending
the length of testing, testing over different wood species, and
testing over panels with an artificial challenge. This additional
part of the project will be designed to evaluate modifications to
the current protocol, to achieve a wider acceptance and use
throughout the EU.
Consultation on this proposal with PRA members and
subsequently a wider audience is planned for early 2003.
Meanwhile, if PRA members have any particular comments to make at
this stage, these would be most welcome, and should be addressed
to Richard Holman.
