My dear bellyheads, I've been following a wood treatment process called acetylation with serious interest. My interest is 2 fold. One - for my sash/door building and other exterior wood applications, and two- for soundboard panels. Sash wise, myself and many other exterior millwork guys, are trying to find replacements for the amazingly stable rot resistant, but disappearing Honduran Mahogany. In this regard, a product called Accoya has been receiving some serious attention in the replacement mahogany front in this country very recently. It was developed by a Dutch company. Its radiata Pine (sustainable) that has undergone acetlyation. It has been around and been receiving real time testing for 10 yrs in Europe. I'm not chemist, but the talk is that the hydroxyl groups naturally occurring in wood are converted to acetyle groups...for non-chemists like me, they say its like being treated with vineagar...a simple minded explanation but it gets the broad idea across, I think. Anyway the result is that the wood retains its structural characteristics, gains a little density(unlike pressure treated wood which gains tonnage), but most importanly for me its dimensional stability is increased by 75%. Both real time testing and independent testing seems to bear this claim out. Insects do not recognize the substance as wood, and it doesn't support fungal growth. here are some #'s: Sitka tangential shrinkage 7.5%, Accoya tangential 1.5% (warranty maximum 2.5%) Sitka radial 4.3%, Accoya radial .7% Sitka density 450kg/m3, Accoya density 510 kg/m3 Sitka MOE 1.57, Accoya 1.27 white spruce 1.34, engleman spruce 1.28 my thinkings here bellywise are: 1-major reduction in seasonal reactivity of a soundboard panel 2-a stable substance that could be fabricated using our current standard wood shop techniques 2- in rc&s assemblies, it has not been satisfactorily explained to me why the panel, which is not the structural member of the board has to be sitka 3- could sitka be acetlyated? For your amusement I offer http://www.accoya.com/ . I have a pdf of the wood's properties which I would post, but I don't think I can post an attachment to the archives You might try to get it here, http://www.accoya.com/accoya_downloads.asp or contact me and I'll send you the pdf. By the way, this is a marketing free zone...I'm not a distributor of the stuff, and have no stake in selling it...just a wood guy interested in new developments. Jim I Jim Ialeggio grandpianosolutions.com 978- 425-9026 Shirley, MA
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