TRADA Research On Primers Will Put Block On Stains

TRADA Technology Ltd has won £70,000 of DTI funding under the Partners in Innovation programme for a new research project to evaluate the effectiveness of stain blocking primers for wood joinery.

Peter Kaczmar, TRADA Technology's Coatings and Treatments specialist, will head up the research.

The project has arisen from the growing problem of discolouration and staining of light coloured coatings.

As Mr Kaczmar explained, 'The movement and subsequent oxidation of naturally occurring compounds within the wood can cause an unsightly disfigurement, in the form of unsightly dark brown patches in the coating soon after painting.

Corrective action can be extremely costly, as wholesale remedial measures prior to handover of new buildings are often required, possibly even the complete repainting of all wood joinery.' Experience has shown that the problem is more severe with water borne coatings.

'Thus the frequency of the problem increasing, as the use of water borne paints themselves has risen.

And the problem will get worse.

In response to environmental and legislative pressures, mandatory reliance on water borne coatings for use on wood can only increase,' he warned.

In spite of a surge in new products claiming to hold the solution, commercial stain blocking products are, at best, variable and at worst ineffective and TRADA's consultancy experience bears this out.

Targeted research in this area will help to eliminate such manufacturing and in-service problems.

The research will encompass • a survey of the wood cladding and joinery sectors to identify "stain-blocking" strategies currently in commercial use 'case studies of sites where extractive staining is known to be a problem' comparative laboratory evaluation of different stain blocking primers • a programme of natural and artificial weathering tests.

The results will be published in two guidance documents, a summary of the project results in the form of product specification guidance, which will identify to the consumer which type of products are most effective in preventing extractive staining; and site handling and best practice guidance, containing a distillation of the available knowledge gained during the course of the literature investigations and case studies.

The project partners are: TRADA Technology Ltd, the Timber Research and Development Association, Teknos (UK) Ltd, AKZO Nobel Woodcare, Becker Acroma Ltd, Ronseal Trade Granwax Products Ltd, Valtti Specialist Paints and Michael Abbott.

For further details concerning the research programme contact Peter Kaczmar at TRADA on 01494 569637.

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