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High performance, sustainable coated UK timber for exterior applications

A scoping study being conducted for the Forestry Commission

The Forestry Commission are supporting a project with BRE that is critically appraising the opportunity for utilising coating technologies on selected UK grown timber to produce a high performance coated exterior wood product. The products under consideration for this technology may be fully factory finished and ready for installation as cladding, doors, garden buildings and garden furniture. The technology barriers will be identified and samples of UK timbers will be coated to provide test specimens for conducting the European Standard exterior wood coatings tests, to EN 927.


The project aims:

  • To critically assess the opportunity for coatings technologies to be applied to select UK timber species
  • To conduct performance evaluations to EN 927 on the samples and the current exterior wood coatings state of the art
  • To conclude on the potential for coating technology to enhance UK timber utilisation in specific target end use markets

Powder coating is used to coat interior wood based products and other metallic and non-metallic surfaces. The technology offers tremendous savings as reduced processing times. From an uncoated board product to a coated product that can be packed and shipped the processing time can be as short as one or two minutes, a fraction of the processing time for conventional spray applied coatings. In addition the technology offers some interesting sustainability advantages through the use of no solvent technologies and improved durability of surfaces.

The potential outcome would be a high performance (long life, reduced maintenance) exterior coated wood technology using UK timber. The project aims also:

  • To critically assess the opportunity for powder coating technology to be applied to select UK timber species
  • To produce initial prototype coated samples

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