Facilities and Equipment

Wood Preservation and Durability Laboratory

Once completed, the preservation and durability laboratories and equipment in the CRF will provide the widest variety of testing capabilities available to date.

The wood preservation treatment facility will house five pilot-scale pressure treatment cylinders capable of conducting both water- and oil-based chemical treatments on a wide variety of wood dimensions. The facility will be equipped with computerized temperature controls, emulsification, pumping, and ventilation equipment required to conduct cutting-edge research on penetration and retention of new preservative formulations on both commercially available and underutilized wood species.

The new facility includes dedicated environmentally controlled chambers for research with mold and decay fungi and termites featuring separate air handling systems to avoid cross-contamination between research projects. A fungal cellar is available to conduct accelerated durability tests on treated wood across a range of simulated environmental exposure conditions. Researchers will have the capability to conduct accelerated laboratory tests of preservative releases into the environment when exposed to water submersion, simulated rainfall, and a range of weathering regimes. Chemistry, biochemistry, and bacteriology laboratories round out the features of this top-notch facility.

The CRF will also house a custom-designed moisture testing facility that is unlike any other of its size in North America. The primary role of the facility is to test larger-sized wall assemblies in various combinations of rain and wind simulation. For example, researchers will be able to use the facility to simulate a wind-driven rain onto a wall assembly and determine how and where leaking occurs.

Capabilities of this unique facility include simulating up to 25-mile-per-hour wind speed with faster gusts lasting up to 5 seconds; rainfall of up to 5 inches of rain per hour; temperature settings of 30F-110F; and dew point temperatures of 25F-80F.