Safety of timber: An analysis of quality control options

The quality assurance of timber properties is important for the safety of timber structures. In the current study, the quality control options of timber are analysed under the prism of the different growth regions. Therefore, these options - machine and output control - are simulated in accordance with EN 14081, and the performance is assessed and compared using 279,000 timber pieces from a production facility. For the data with only grading information available, the real properties were simulated based on 4,158 specimens for which destructive test results are also available. The results indicate that timber with desired property values can be produced by both machine and output control. In direct comparison to machine control, the output control delivers timber which matches the requirements more frequently as quality shifts can be detected. Whenever lower timber quality is identified, the settings are increased. The output control system for multiple growth regions is not sensitive enough when the current attribute chart given in EN 14081-3 is used.Structural EngineeringCivil Engineering and Geoscience