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| Verification of structural timber properties |
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| Saturday, 10 May 2008 00:00 |
 Over the last 12 months there has been much conjecture regarding the supply of some visually graded softwood products. As you may recall, the supply of visually graded treated F7 and some F5 and heart in F5 began to reduce at about this time last year. This resulted from widespread concern over the assurance of grade compliance.The difficulty which suppliers have faced in verifying the structural properties of visually graded timber led the Australian Plantation Products and Paper Industry Council (A3P) to issue an Information Bulletin in April 2007 to try and explain the situation. At that time they advised that producers of all structural timber products need to have appropriate quality assurance processes in place to ensure that their products are suitable for their intended applications. They also indicated that producers who were supplying mechanically stress-graded products would certainly be required to have a suitable structural property monitoring and verification system built into their manufacturing process. In the ensuing 12 months, timber associations throughout the country have continued to call upon their members to ensure that their products comply with the relevant standards. They have emphasised, in particular, that products must be appropriately marked or labelled in accordance with the requirements of those standards. In recent months, A3P has organised and conducted a number of workshops within the industry to develop guidelines for the verification of Structural Timber Properties. At the latest meeting, in mid March, producers worked on reviewing the draft guidelines. A final draft is expected in June and an industry document should be completed by August. The finalisation of this verification process will assure users and consumers of the structural qualities of timber. It will, moreover, improve the perception of structurally graded softwood in the broader community. |
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