Structural Composite Lumber /

Structural Manufactured
Components:
This wood product is designed for structural use and L is manufactured from
wood strands or veneers bonded with adhesives and created using a layering
technique where the outcome is a block known as a billet.
SCL products that are used for common structural applications include:

Laminated veneer lumber (LVL)

parallel strand lumber (PSL)
laminated strand lumber (LSL) and
Oriented strand lumber (OSL).

It has the ability to be manufactured using small, fast-grow and underutilized

trees, SCL represents an efficient use of wood resources as it helps to meet
the challenge of increasing demand for quality structural lumber. SCL has
been successfully used in a variety of areas used as headers and beams,
truss chords, I-Joist flanges, columns and studs and other applications.

Manufacturing LVL and PSL (similar method between laminated veneer lumber and
laminated strand lumber)
The initial steps of manufacture of LVL are similar to those used in the manufacture of plywood.
Logs are usually rotary peeled on a lathe to create veneer sheets. These
Drying, removal of defects, grading, cutting and joining

Sheets are dried, clipped to remove major strength reducing defects, and then graded. The
sheets are cut to the required width for the billet to be produced.
The individual veneers are then assembled with the grain (pattern of wood) of all veneers
running in the long direction of the billet. The End joints between individual pieces of veneer are
staggered (ending parallel sheets on part of the layer below the veneers) along the length of

the billet to disperse any remaining strength reducing defects. The joints may be scarf jointed or
overlapped for some distance to provide load transfer.

Adhesive coating, pressing and curing

The veneer lengths are coated with a waterproof phenol-formaldehyde resin adhesive. The
assembled billets are subjected simultaneously to pressure to consolidate the veneers, and to
heat to accelerate curing of the adhesive. Once again, this aspect of the process is similar to
that for plywood except that rather than being in a thin flat panel shape, the LVL material is
formed into long billets
Once cured, the billets are sawn to custom lengths and widths as desired for the product end
use.

Manufacture of LSL and OSL (similar method between 8parallel strand lumber and
oriented strand lumber)
The initial steps of PSL manufacture are similar to those used in the manufacture of plywood.
Peeling, sorting and removal of defects
Logs are turned on a lathe to create veneer and the veneer sheets are oven dried.(similar in
plywood production)
The veneer sheets are clipped into long narrow strands of wood .Major strength reducing
defects are removed from the sheets.
Adhesive addition, hot press and cutting finishing
The strands are coated completely with an exterior-type adhesive (phenol-formaldehyde), laidup with the strands oriented to the length of the member, and formed into a continuous billet
which is fed into a belt press. Under pressure and microwave generated heat, the glue is cured
to produce a finished continuous billet

The billet is cross cut to desired lengths, rip sawn to produce rough stock dimensions or custom
sizes, and sanded down to finish dimensions. Larger dimensions are produced by edge gluing
billets together using techniques common to those used for the manufacture of glulam.