Stabilization of Palm Wood using Water-based Impregnation

Impregnation is a technique for stabilizing wood that involves saturating the material in a liquid and allowing it to cure before use. Stabilization methods such as this are employed for a variety of reasons; chiefly, the low dimensional stability of wood and palm means that they are subject to several failure modes that arise from changing environmental conditions, such as cracking, warping, and bending. Samples of Borassus flabellifer, black palm, provided by DuraPalm were impregnated with solvent-based and water-based stabilizers, and untreated wood samples used as a control group. Kop-Coat WoodYouth® Plus was used as a solvent-based stabilizer, and impregnation treatment using it was performed by Kop-Coat. BVV Wood Stabilizer and TurnTex Cactus Juice were used as water-based stabilizers, and these impregnation treatments performed by the Oregon State University Department of Forestry. Treated samples were allowed to condition for 72 hours in an environmental chamber held at 20.5 °C and 21% relative humidity using a saturated solution of lithium chloride and water as a hygroscopic agent. Sample weight gains showed that the palm samples responded well to impregnation treatment, but 72 hours was not enough time for conditioning to produce any significant change in part dimensions or surface degradation