Panel Agency Ltd has teamed up with Danish glulam supplier Lilleheden A/S to bring an alternative engineered timber product to the UK and Irish timber frame markets.
The company, based in Longfield, has already secured customers for its Panelam glulam ring beam product, which has been developed as an alternative to the normal beams using LVL and other engineered products in timber frame floor cassettes.
Panel Agency, which spent two years working on the project, said there is a need for an alternative rim beam due to the growth of the engineered joist market serving the burgeoning timber frame sector. It says glulam’s advantages include dimensional stability, moisture and fire resistance, plus cost.
Lilleheden, whose agreement with Panel Agency represents its first alliance with a UK-based distributor, carried out initial research and development to create a product meeting market requirements. Panelam is now being supplied to match existing depths of a variety of engineered I-beams and is available treated or untreated in widths of 38mm, 43mm, 75mm and 90mm.
Long-term contracts already secured include Guildford Timber Frame, while one of the biggest manufacturers in the sector is also expected to take the product soon.
Ernest Wilson, Panel Agency’s managing director, said: “We are delighted that with the support of a high quality manufacturer we have been able to bring a concept to market in such a short time. We are now supplying significant volumes of this new product and have every faith that Panelam will become an established and widely recognised brand.”
