Dolphin Bay has added copper azole to its range of wood preservative products, offering customers an even broader choice and broadening their opportunities to export.
Dolphin Bay has added copper azole to its range of wood preservative products. Image credit: Pixabay
“While chromated copper arsenate (CCA) remains the most effective solution, we wanted to offer our customers a wider choice, should the need arise for alternative rather than traditional preservatives,” says Bertus Coetzee, Dolphin Bay managing director.
Copper azole is widely used in Europe, the United States and Australia for structural purposes. The market in Africa is relatively small due to the high cost premium in comparison to existing preservatives, with only a few countries using alkaline copper quaternary (ACQ) and copper azole.
The general appearance of wood treated with copper azole is similar to CCA, as both preservatives give the wood a slightly green colouration. Copper azole is fairly similar to ACQ in its chemical composition. Both products are dissolved in the chemical reaction, but while ACQ uses a quaternary ammonium compound, copper azole augments the dissolved copper preservative with an azole.
Copper azole is widely used in Europe, the United States and Australia for structural purposes.
“We’ve found that copper azole is not as effective as CCA for certain applications. In heavy load-bearing conditions it has a relatively high failure rate. Nevertheless, it is a good alternative for H2 and H3 structural timber,” Coetzee adds.
With copper azole added to the product offering, Dolphin Bay now has the largest variety of water-based wood preservatives in South Africa, including CCA and two types of ACQ and boron.
