Incombustible wood and Tokyo Olympics

I want to think about non-combustible wood and the Tokyo Olympics.
There has been considerable inquiries in this area.

Some companies actually go into the production of non-combustible wood, while others look to the accompanying functional timber and building materials markets.
Suofa, a boric acid-based flame retardant with low toxicity and high flame retardancy to cellulose, has attracted attention as a flame retardant for these substances.

The government’s policy to promote the use of domestic timber is advancing, and the use of non-combustible wood is being actively discussed in the construction of related facilities for the Tokyo Olympics. However, we feel that incombustible wood is not yet mature as a market.

It is a famous story in the industry, but unannounced inspections of materials certified by the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in June 2011 revealed that 9 out of 10 companies had not yet been certified. At that time, the industry was perceived as heavy and the trust in non-combustible wood fluctuated.
The following companies did not reach the certification at that time.
http://www.mlit.go.jp/common/000148062.pdf

It is a situation where the top players in the industry are all at once.

Subsequent responses to non-qualified products at that time were merely guidance and the certification numbers were not revoked and the subsequent certification standards were not strict. At that time, it could be said that the decision was based on reality, avoiding confusion.

Although this is considered to be a major problem, if you cancel the certification number for these companies, you will have to investigate the non-combustible wood of other uninvestigated companies, and even raise doubts about the certification test itself It is not difficult to imagine that the government could not pursue further.

However, the fact that most of the products were non-conforming while issuing the national certification number was a problem that someone had to take responsibility for.

Now, the story changes.
Incombustible wood is a young and immature industry since its development. Acquisition of the Minister’s certification number allows construction on various buildings, but the test itself is a method of processing chemicals on a 10 cm square piece of wood and measuring only with the test piece.

  • According to the rules, it is supposed to be cut from the actual material.

However, incombustible wood that is actually installed on site actually has a larger size, so the wood quality varies. At present, it can be said that quality control is left to each manufacturer.

However, I think the potential of non-combustible wood is great. At present, there is no demand because there is no demand. There is a good possibility that this will enter the phase of “existing ⇒ demand begins to emerge.”
If various products made of wood materials such as plywood, LVL, MDF, and perch are made non-combustible, the range of use will first expand. Against this background, the non-combustible wood industry is booming.

The problems with the current non-combustible wood are the efflorescence phenomenon and the condensation phenomenon.
Many manufacturers use boric acid as a flame retardant, but most of them are boric acid-based flame retardants. Mainly, disodium octaborate tetrahydrate is used.
However, since this is not enough to dissolve in water, we have heard that there are many drugs whose concentration is increased by adding diammonium phosphate as an auxiliary agent.

This increases the concentration of boric acid and increases the flame retardancy when soaked in wood.

However, boric acid is said to cause efflorescence and phosphoric acid to cause condensation. In the case of a mixture, it may be necessary to volatilize the phosphoric acid after drying.
Although the detailed mechanism of boric acid’s efflorescence has not been elucidated, it is said that it binds to moisture in the air and hardens white on the wood surface.
It seems that it can be reduced by drying methods, etc., but perfect non-combustible wood does not yet exist.

Each company advertises that it won’t bloom, but I think it’s a bit unreasonable to look at it sparingly.
The boric acid type is always accompanied by efflorescence.
The non-combustible wood currently being developed at SOUFA does not cause efflorescence. Our company is also a boric acid drug, but we apply another boric acid other than 8 boric acid with special technology.
Therefore, it is considered that it is difficult to settle inside the wood and cause efflorescence. However, depending on the construction conditions, soufa may cause efflorescence, so we will continue to verify it.

Here is a very interesting data, so I will link to it.
http://www.funen.or.jp/images/funenganshinryo.pdf

This is a graph showing the relationship between the amount of impregnation of noncombustibles and certification

CONTACT

Contact us here