Dolphin Bay has added copper azole to its range of wood preservative products, offering customers an even broader choice and increasing their opportunities to export.

“While chromated copper arsenate (CCA) remains the most effective solution, we wanted to offer our customers a wider choice, should the need arise for an alternative rather than traditional preservatives,” said Bertus.

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.

 Copper azole is widely used in Europe, the United States and Australia for structural purposes.      

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.

“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,” said Bertus.

With copper azole added to our product offering, Dolphin Bay now has the largest variety of water-based wood preservatives in South Africa, our range also including CCA, two types of ACQ and boron.

Should this spark your interest, we would be pleased to share with you the comparative benefits and costs of various preservatives, and the ways in which treatment plants should be modified to use different products.

Source: Dolphon Bay Chemicals