by Web Editor | Mar 26, 2018 | News
From: Panel World Editors
Officials with Oregon State University are investigating a construction incident when a CLT panel failed in mid March at a campus building project. A 4×20 ft. panel, part of the sub flooring between the building’s second and third floors, gave way after delaminating on one end. No construction personnel were in the area and no one was injured. The panel was replaced, other sections of CLT sub flooring were shored up, and work was halted on other CLT sections.
Steve Clark, OSU vice president of marketing and university relations, said the university is bringing in an outside engineering firm to determine cause of the failure and whether any other CLT portions of construction were at risk of failure, and CLT work will resume once any issues are addressed. Ironically, the new Peavy Hall building is home to OSU’s renowned College of Forestry, and the building is designed to showcase Oregon’s forest industry and the relatively new (in North America) mass timber construction movement. However, Clark says project managers “have the utmost confidence in CLT” and plan to finish the project as designed using CLT. The project’s CLT panels are being supplied by D.R. Johnson Lumber of Riddle, Ore., which was the first U.S. producer to gain CLT certification in 2016.
by Web Editor | Sep 11, 2017 | News
Thanks to a partnership with the Oregon State University College of Forestry, D.R. Johnson Wood Innovations in Riddle, Oregon, recently became the first U.S. certified manufacturer of cross-laminated timber.
Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is a massive structural composite panel product usually consisting of three to nine layers of dimensional timber arranged perpendicular to each other, much like layers of veneer in plywood and can be used as prefabricated wall, floor and roofing elements in residential, public and commercial structures. It is extremely strong and flexible, making it resilient to seismic activity.
Lech Muszyński, assistant professor of wood science and engineering, first saw CLT in production during his 2009 sabbatical in Austria. He says those facilities were unlike anything he had ever seen.
“I decided to visit as many as I could because the diversity was astounding,” Muszyński says. “I learned that you don’t need to be a big operation to make a difference in the market.”
Once back at OSU, Muszyński began making the rounds to industry partners to gauge their interest in constructing CLT test panels. He had little success until a meeting of the college’s Board of Visitors. Valarie Johnson, president of D.R. Johnson Lumber was in the room.
From Oregon State University: https://www.forestry.oregonstate.edu/osu-dr-johnson-work-together-produce-cross-laminated-timber
