Bulking Treatments

Reactive bulking chemicals form covalent bonding in the cell wall. Examples include alkylene oxides and low molecular weight thermosetting resins. Unlike non-reactive chemicals, treatment with these chemicals is considered non-reversible. 

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Bulking Treatment with Water Soluble Non-Reacting Chemicals... 

Bulking Treatment with Water Insoluble Chemicals. The chief shortcomings of dimensional stabilization of wood with polyethylene glycol are that it can be leached from the wood and that the wood feels damp when held for prolonged periods of time at relative humidities of 80% and above. It thus appears desirable to deposit water insoluble materials within the cell walls of wood. This can be done by a replacement process with waxes (42). Water in green wood is replaced by Cellosolve (ethylene glycol monoethyl ether) by soaking the wood in this... 

Other bulking treatments have their special applications. Phenolic resin treatment, the first to be developed, gives high permanent dimensional stability, decay, heat, acid, and electrical resistance. When compressed prior to setting of the resin, it gives the hardest treated wood known, hardness increases up to... 

The process should be suitable for bulk treatment with the minimum of pre- and post treatment. 

The costing exercise suggests that the price per book is at least comparable to other bulk treatment processes. 

The types of chemical treatments involved in the conservation of archaeological wood are (i) lumen-filling treatments that fill the spaces within the wood with an inert chemical to provide structural support and prevent collapse, (ii) bulking treatments that enter the cell walls and reduce cell wall shrinkage, and (iii) surface coatings that cover the surface of a dry object. 

In reactive bulking treatments, a chemical is covalently bonded to the cell wall. Cross-linking of the cell wall material may also occur. Such treatments sometimes swell the wood and sometimes cause it to shrink. Examples of reactive bulking treatments include alkylene oxides and impregnation with thermosetting resins. These treatments are essentially nonreversible, but they often improve the stiffness of the cell walls. As a result of their nonreversibility, the conservation community is very cautious about adopting such treatments. It is, however, likely that these methods will find some utility with very deteriorated objects that cannot be satisfactorily stabilized by more traditional techniques. 

Autoclaving (not new but more advanced systems allow bulk treatment of substantial quantities)... 

Devaux, E., Koncar, V., Kim, B., Campagne, C., Roux, C., Rochery, M., Saitu, D., 2007. Pto-cessing and characterization of conductive yams by coating or bulk treatment for smart textile applications. Trans. Inst. Meas. Control 29 (3-4), 355-376. 

Energy consumption and other overhead costs Material costs and availability Material to process compatibility Component form and dimensions Tolerance requirements Surface finish needs Bulk treatment and surface engineering Process to component variability -> Process waste - Component recycling... 

The effective interfacial concentration can be approximately formulated in an analogous fashion to the bulk treatment ... 

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