Wet glued laminated beams using side boards of Norway spruce

In a previous research project, carried out during the years 2006-2008, the possibility to manufacture wet glued laminated beams using ungraded laminations of Norway spruce side boards was investigated with very promising results. In the project presented in this report, the performance of the wet glued beams has been further investigated and developed as regards grading of side board laminations, bond line properties and lamination finger jointing. The possibility to use scanning equipment for measurement of fibre angles and prediction of strength and stiffness of boards and beams has been studied and the procedures for technical approval and CE marking have been probed into. Studies concerning market and economy for the beams and layouts for a pilot plant and a full capacity plant, respectively, for production of such beams have also been carried out. The possibility to grade side boards in the wet state using axial dynamic excitation was investigated with a positive result. From such excitation, a board’s stiffness (modulus of elasticity) could be determined. Accordingly, grading criteria regarding axial stiffness, and knot size, was applied to grade side board laminations into two classes; outer and inner laminations. Strength and stiffness tests of beams manufactured from such graded laminations showed that the beams actually could challenge first rate glulam and LVL products available on the market. Regarding beam shape and shape stability, cross section cupping may need further attention. Even if this deformation was small, it was still visible to the naked eye. The problem could probably be overcome if the beams are dried to a moisture content of 12-14% before planing. Results of shear tests show that green glued bond lines can fulfil strength requirements for glulam. However, delamination requirements for service class 3 (outdoors) were not fully met. From small scale tensile testing of glued bonds it was concluded that green glued bonds with high density wood have the same tensile strength and fracture energy as dry glued bonds. For bonds with low density wood and/or small amount of adhesive, the tensile strength could be lower than for dry glued bonds, whereas the fracture energy was on a similar level. Strength testing of wet and dry glued finger joints demonstrated that joints glued from high density wood was significantly stronger than low density joints and that there was no significant difference between the strength of green glued joints and joints glued after drying. From X-ray measurement it was shown that the glue penetration into the wood fibres is much deeper in a green glued joint than in a joint that is glued in the dried state. From scanning algorithms developed within the scope of this project it is possible to obtain reasonably accurate predictions of grain-angle distributions on board surfaces as well as rather accurate descriptions of knot locations and of fibre-angle disturbances around knots. From scanning of board ends, cross section characteristics with respect to radial and tangential directions and of annual ring widths could also be determined. Finally, both board and beam stiffness were predicted from this data, with an accuracy that is comparable with the one obtained from well-reputed commercial grading systems