A FENCING company that has created a sustainable alternative to chemically treated timber has applied for funding under a federal government initiative aimed at assisting companies through the commercialisation process.
A FENCING company that has created a sustainable alternative to chemically treated timber has applied for funding under a federal government initiative aimed at assisting companies through the commercialisation process.
Wilson-based Flexipole Industries director and developer, Andrew Duncan, said a successful bid for the $250,000 grant would enable the company to tap into potentially lucrative interstate and international markets.
He said Flexipole’s NACFlex product, an environmentally friendly composite material, had a huge market potential as an alternative to timber, steel and plastic.
“What we are doing is very unique; it can be applied to so many different things because our product can be made in any shape, form, size or colour,” Mr Duncan said.
NACFlex comprises of a plantation timber core that is wrapped in a glass fibre-reinforced resin exterior, which is then coated in a gel. Mr Duncan said the finished product was resistant to rot, termites, water, chemicals and fire.
“Basically I wanted to make a product that didn’t have any chemicals in it whatsoever, which can also be recycled,” he said.
Mr Duncan created the NACFlex prototype six years ago after a number of years’ development. He set up Flexipole with fellow director Pat Smyth and said the initial application was for vineyards after some in the wine sector shifted from handpicking to mechanical harvesting.
“[Mechanical harvesting] often breaks the treated pine logs; steel is used extensively as well, but it rusts and if you get high wind it can actually pull the entire vine down as they snap off at the ground,” Mr Duncan said.
Flexipole marketing manager Stuart Marland told WA Business News the problem with treated timber was that it didn’t last very long and that disposal was an issue at the end of its life.
“CCA (copper, chromium and arsenate) treated timber can’t be incinerated because the ash is toxic, you can’t re-use it, basically it goes into landfill and now you have to pay for that,” Mr Marland said.
“So there’s a cost at the end and it has to sit in a containment area for a certain amount of time.”
Mr Duncan said Flexipole was keen to “eradicate the use of CCA treated timber – telegraph poles for instance – which is highly toxic; it’s a known carcinogen”.
To date, all of the sales for NACFlex have been within Western Australia. Mr Marland said the company predominantly dealt with local councils through direct sales.
“The chain of customers from then on has been property developers through to landscape architects and landscape contractors,” Mr Marland said.
“Then we have rural landowners for fencing, horse studs for equine fencing and vineyards.”
The NACFlex product was recognised at last month’s Western Australia Innovator of the Year Awards, receiving the Charles Morgan innovator award for NACFlex.
The award, named in honour of venture capitalist and chairman of the Interim Council for Science and Innovation of WA, Charles Morgan, meant Flexipole received $10,000 of Mr Morgan’s chairman fee, plus an extra $10,000 from the awards.
“As part of our [Innovator of the Year Awards] presentation, we analysed the worldwide potential for the viticulture poles, which was estimated at $US24 billion per year,” Mr Duncan said.
“And that’s just one single product, one single market – and we have a diverse range, so there’s huge potential.”
