Surface engineering to enhance the performance of exterior wood decking

地板是一种室外使用的地板材料，在住宅和非住宅领域都有使用。北美的甲板市场每年价值60亿美元，相当于每年生产30亿英尺的甲板。地板市场对每年生产3亿英尺地板的加拿大公司来说很重要。然而，由于塑料和木塑复合材料制成的产品的出现，这个重要的市场正在下降。所有这些产品在户外使用时都比木质地板更好地保持外观，并且需要更少的维护。但在北美使用的木制甲板仍然类似于商品木材，很少对甲板表面进行工程设计，以便在户外使用时能够抵抗天气的影响并保持其外观。这种情况与室内地板市场截然不同，室内地板市场主要由工程产品主导，这些产品具有视觉吸引力，耐磨且易于安装和维护。我们从后者得到启示，并与加拿大一些领先的林产品和化学公司合作，该项目旨在设计木质地板，使其能够更有效地与塑料地板竞争。我们将使用的方法来重新设计甲板建立在十年的研究开发物理和化学处理，以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了解为什么表面轮廓和切割等处理可以减少木材的开裂。我们将优化表面轮廓、亚表面刻纹和疏水性树脂处理，并在加拿大有潜力用于铺装的木材品种上进行测试。我们将结合最有前途的物理和化学处理方法，评估最有前途的系统，并在中试规模上生产优质的木饰面产品。该项目的主要交付物是由加拿大物种制成的木质地板，可以有效地在市场上与塑料地板竞争。

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.