SUPERWOOD is running a research program with the aim of improving the water repellency of wood using the advantages of the supercritical wood impregnation process.  

The basic idea is to give the wood a water repellent treatment in combination with the fungicides already used in the process.

The water repellent treatment is designed to delay the uptake of liquid water by the impregnated wood which will reduce the dimensional changes that occur when wood absorbs liquid water.  

The treatment could be used for any kind of wood used in outdoor above ground applications, but would be especially beneficial when applied to pine sapwood.

Pine sapwood is in many ways an ideal material for joinery production like wood windows. However, it has two main problems: 1) it has a low natural durability and 2) it absorbs liquid water easily.

The aim of our research is to address both of these issues i.e. increasing the durability and water repellency of pine sapwood – without changing other wood properties.

The treatment is a combined treatment with fungicides and siloxane. The fungicides increase the durability and the siloxane provides water repellency to the wood.

One of the advantages of the treatment is that the improvement on water repellency is gained without negatively affecting any other wood properties. That means that properties such as density, strength, color, smell, feel, etc. remain unchanged as a result of treatment.