ABSTRACT
This study is a part of the EUREKA-project EU:455 Prowood, which is coordinated by the Norwegian paint manufacturer Jotun A/S. It is a joint project directed towards the development of new, environmentally friendly wood protection systems and their testing and assessment.
A number of different priming treatments have been used on samples of pine and spruce. These treatments were combined with alkyd and acrylic topcoat paints. The treated panels were subjected to a repeated accelerated aging in a Weather-Ometer and their rates of water uptake were recorded during eight consecutive cycles of wetting in a single-sided water exposure. The performance in these tests revealed that some of the treatments gave a pronounced and lasting reduction in the water uptake rate without adversely affecting the drying stage of the whole cycle, while others showed conspicuously high water uptakes, both in rates and extents.
Dynamic contact angle measurements have been used to evaluate the water spreading rates on treated surfaces, and the moisture dynamics of some of the treated panels was studied with computed tomography.
