Borates play an important role in protecting wood and engineered wood from fungi, insects and fire. Borates are impregnated into the wood by various processes such as dipping, immersion, brushing, spraying, vacuum or pressurized systems.
Typically, very fine sodium borate powders, which are designed to be highly soluble, are dissolved in water before dipping, brushing or spraying the wood with the borate solution. The drawback of using fine powders is that they are very cohesive, dusty and difficult to handle. Replacing the borate powder with a liquid will eliminate the problems of dustiness and erratic feeding and handling. The borate liquid will be easy to pump and meter into immersion and vacuum tanks. The borate liquid will also readily disperse and dissolve into water compared to a powder.
If you would like to test the use of borate liquids in the preservation of wood products, please speak to our technical team to select the most suitable borate liquid for your process.