Surface engineering to enhance the performance of exterior wood decking

饰面是一种户外使用的地板材料，无论是在住宅还是非住宅领域。北美的甲板市场每年价值60亿美元。相当于每年生产30亿英尺的直线板。对于年产3亿直尺铺装板的加拿大公司来说，铺装市场很重要。然而，由于塑料和木塑复合材料产品的出现，这个重要的市场正在衰落。所有这些产品在户外使用时都比木质甲板保持得更好，而且需要的维护更少。但北美使用的木质甲板仍然类似于商品木材，几乎没有采取什么措施来设计甲板表面，以便它们能够抵抗天气的影响，并在户外使用时保持其外观。这种情况与室内地板市场截然不同，室内地板市场以外观美观、耐用、易于安装和维护的工程产品为主。我们从后一个领域得到启发，并与加拿大一些领先的森林产品和化学公司合作，该项目寻求设计能够更有效地与塑料制成的甲板竞争的木质甲板。我们将使用的方法来重新设计甲板，建立在十年的研究基础上，开发物理和化学处理方法来阻止户外使用的木材的光降解和开裂。我们将使用表面应变的数字图像相关性来更深入地理解为什么表面仿形和切割等处理方法可以减少木材的开裂。我们将优化表面轮廓、亚表面起皱和疏水树脂处理，并在有潜力用于装饰的加拿大木材品种上进行测试。我们将结合最有希望的物理和化学处理，评估最有希望的系统，并在试点规模上制造优质的木质甲板产品。该项目的主要交付产品是由加拿大树种制成的木质甲板，这种木质甲板可以有效地在市场上与塑料制成的甲板竞争。

Decking is a flooring material used outdoors in both residential and non-residential sectors. The North American market for decking is valued at 6 billion dollars p.a. equating to the production of 3 billion lineal feet of decking annually. The decking market is important for Canadian companies who manufacture 300 million lineal feet of decking boards p.a. However, this important market is declining because of the emergence of products made from plastics and wood-plastic composites. All these products maintain their appearance better than wood decking when used outdoors and require less maintenance. But wooden decking used in North America still resembles commodity lumber and little is done to engineer the surface of deck boards so that they can resist the effects of the weather and maintain their appearance when used outdoors. This situation is quite different to the market for interior flooring which is dominated by engineered products that are visually appealing, hard wearing and easy to install and maintain. Taking our cue from the latter sector and working with some of the leading forest products and chemical companies in Canada this project seeks to engineer wooden decking that can compete more effectively with decking made from plastic. The approaches we will use to re-engineer decking build on a decade of research on developing physical and chemical treatments to block the photodegradation and cracking of wood used outdoors. We will use digital image correlation of surface strains to develop a deeper understanding of why treatments such as surface profiling and incising reduce the cracking of wood. We will optimize surface profiling and sub-surface kerfing and hydrophobic resin treatments and test them on Canadian wood species that have potential to be used for decking. We will combine the most promising physical and chemical treatments, evaluate the most promising systems, and manufacture superior wooden decking products on a pilot scale. The major deliverable for this project is wood decking made from Canadian species that can effectively compete in the market place with decking made from plastic.