A consortium of 15 partners from the coatings and joinery industries and research institutes have been successful in receiving EU funding of €2.7m towards SERVOWOOD, a FP7 project whose goal is to develop and establish European standards that will facilitate the prediction of service life for exterior wood coatings. The total budgeted cost of the project is €3.8m.
The consortium is made up of CEPE (the European Coatings Federation, representing the European paint manufacturers) and trade associations and consultancies from Denmark, Germany, Spain and the UK representing both paint manufacturers and the wood supply chain, together with research institutes and two SME coatings and joinery manufacturers.
Commenting on the success, Jan van der Meulen, Director General of CEPE and SERVOWOOD's project co-ordinator said: "It is fantastic news that the Coatings Industry, together with its partners from the woodworking industry, have secured this funding towards a project that will help shine the light on the contribution made by coatings towards protecting scarce natural resources, such as wood used as a substrate in the construction industry. Given that only one in twenty bids are successful, this is a real achievement".
The project started on the 1st January 2014 and will run for three years. During this period the project will expose a wide range of wood panels to natural weathering and a range of accelerated tests, some of which will be novel, to determine which tests best predict natural degradation. It is hoped that from these results an improved European Standard can be developed for the benefit of all those involved in timber construction. It should also help to create more confidence for customers, who have so far been reluctant to use timber building elements, due to assumed high maintenance efforts.
For further information: www.servowood.eu