Glued laminated timber
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Glued laminated timber, also called Gluelam or Glulam, is a type of structural timber product composed of several layers of dimensioned lumber glued together.
By laminating several smaller pieces of wood, a single large, strong, structural member can be manufactured from smaller lumber. These structural members are used as vertical columns or horizontal beams, as well as curved, arching shapes. Connections are usually made with bolts and steel plates.
Glued laminated timber, like other engineered wood products, represent an efficient use of available timber. While demand for lumber continues to increase worldwide, the reduction of remaining high-quality, large-diameter timber has combined with environmental concerns and changes in forestry management practices to make solid timber increasingly expensive and harder to procure. Gluelam structural members can make use of smaller and less desirable dimensions of timber, yet are engineered to be stronger than similarly sized members made of solid wood. They also suffer less than solid timbers from defects and movement due to moisture changes such as checking, warping and twisting.
Glued laminated timber structural members are an environmentally friendly alternative to concrete and steel members as they have a lower embodied energy in comparison. However, all other factors being equal, they do require more energy to produce than a similarly sized solid timber.
The first use of glued laminated timber was in Germany in 1890 by Otto Hetzer. The technology arrived in North America in 1934 when Max Hanisch, Sr., who had worked with Hetzer at the turn of the century, formed a firm in Peshtigo, Wisconsin to manufacture structural glued laminated timber.
[edit] See also
- Engineered wood
- Fiberboard
- Hardboard
- Masonite
- Medium-density fiberboard
- Oriented strand board
- Particle board
- Plywood
- Pressed wood
- Laminated veneer lumber
[edit] External links
- American Institute of Timber Construction
- Glued Laminated Timber Association (UK)
- Glulam 'the naturally engineered solution' from BKTS (UK)
- Glulam Beam Repair/Reinforcement - An article (Printed in STRUCTURE magazine, Sep. 2006) by Gary W. Gray P.E. and Paul C. Gilham P.E.
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