Beech Glulam - Investigations of surface preparation and gluing

In Central Europe, beech wood is the main available hardwood species and its use is also broadly advertised for engineered wood products. Used as engineering material, beech wood offer a great potential for high performance timber structures. However, the physical material behaviour of beech wood and its differences from the material properties from commonly used softwoods require specially adapted production processes for engineered wood products and therefore – among other reasons – delay the broad introduction into the market. The presented results reveal some obstacles and chances for the production of glued laminated timber. The test programme comprises the investigation of different surface preparation techniques as well as the use of different certified adhesives. The characterisation of the different arrangements is based on the requirement of the production of glued laminated timber according to EN 14080:2013. The results show that it is generally possible to produce high quality beech glued laminated timber with commercially available adhesives.