Innovation Anthology #37:
Wonderful as wood is, it decays over time with water, mold and insects all taking their toll.
Now Genics, a company from Spruce Grove, Alberta, has invented an environment friendly wood preservative that could change all that.
Genics first developed a product called Cobra Rod that could be inserted in power poles to increase their lifespan. It uses a combination of boron and copper melted into glass-like rods.
With some help from the Alberta Research Council, Genics has adapted that technology for application to oriented strandboard.
According to Wesley Wall of Genics, the boron and copper rods are crushed into micron sized beads and incorporated into the OSB manufacturing process.
Wesley Wall: Mold is becoming more and more of a concern in the home construction industry. What we’re trying to do though, is really is make the OSB product even better than it is today so we can reach more markets in an export environment, ie: the deep southern US and even over into Japan and China or other tropical climates where typically OSB would find a harder fit there because of the insect problem.
Cobra Crush is now approved for use in oriented strandboard that is exported to the United States.
Thanks today to Alberta Research Council.
FOR INNOVATION ANTHOLOGY, I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
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Alberta Research Council
Established as the first provincial research organization in Canada, the Alberta Research Council is 85 years old. The Alberta Research Council (ARC) develops and commercializes technologies to give customers a competitive advantage. A leader in innovation, ARC provides solutions globally to the energy, life sciences, agriculture, environment, forestry and manufacturing sectors.
ARC performs about five per cent of the roughly $1.5 billion in R&D done in Alberta each year, and generates revenues of approximately $84 million per year. ARC operates from five sites across the province in Edmonton, Calgary, Vegreville and Devon and employs more than 600 highly-skilled people.
In January 2010, under the new Alberta Innovation Framework, the Alberta Research Council was restructured and incorporated into the new provincial agency Alberta Innovates Technology Futures.
Program Date: 2007-06-05