That was the concluding message at a special conference at Edinburgh Napier University’s Wood Studio last week.
The one-day event, "Manufacturing cross-laminated timber from the UK wood resource", attracted an audience of 100 drawn from across the timber and construction sectors, and presented the conclusions of 22 months of research into the production and commercial prospects for UK CLT.
The project was a joint venture between the university’s Forest Products Research Institute and Institute for Sustainable Construction and carried out as part of the Wood Products Innovations Gateway (WPIG) initiative to add value to home-grown timber, with funding from the EU, Scottish Assembly and Forestry Commisson Scotland.
"The project has shown that UK C16 timber, notably Sitka spruce, our principal commercial species, is suited to making CLT that meets all the European standards for strength and stiffness," said Wood Studio director Peter Wilson.
The research, he added, used timber supplied by BSW and manufactured 3.1×1.2m panels on a specially bought press.
"We then extrapolated tests on this initial production to larger dimensions," said Mr Wilson.
The manufacturing equipment was then transferred to timber frame manufacturer CCG’s plant near Forres for further production and performance testing. The company, which is producing a third of the athletes’ accommodation for the Commonwealth Games, is continuing to manufacture panels on a limited scale for timber frame housing.
"They were also used for the spine wall of the BRE’s Innovation Park near Ravenscraig," said Mr Wilson.
The research also concluded that Scottish timber production could currently support the manufacture of 70,000m3 of CLT a year, and that it would be viable to produce this in one large plant, or a number of smaller facilities.
"We estimate that a 15,000m3 capacity factory would cost £4-5m and a 70,000m3 plant £15-20m," said Mr Wilson.
The advantages of making CLT in the UK as opposed to importing would include a cut in transport costs and carbon footprint, and the elimination of exposure to currency fluctuation.
Mr Wilson said there were already expressions of interest in setting up commercial production facilities and discussions were under way with Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Development International on possible funding. He predicted that a plant could be up and running within two years.
According to Andy Leitch of the FC, the WPIG is now looking at using home-grown timber in a range of other applications, including the stack plank wall and Brettstapel doweled construction systems.
