Freres Lumber Co. Mass Plywood Panel Earns APA Certification

Freres Lumber Company announced that the APA – The Engineered Wood Association has certified its patent-pending Mass Plywood Panel (“MPP”) under the ANSI/APA PRG 320 standard. This standard covers the manufacturing, qualification and quality assurance requirements for Cross-Laminated Timber (“CLT”).

Freres Lumber’s MPP is the first, and currently only, Mass Timber Panel constructed entirely out of Structural Composite Lumber (“SCL”) worldwide. The company is only the third U.S. producer of Mass Timber Panels to achieve certification under the PRG 320 standard since the standard’s inception. SCL encompasses engineered wood products, including Laminated Veneer Lumber (“LVL”), constructed by layering dried and graded wood veneers, strands or flakes.

“We are ecstatic to achieve PRG 320 compliance,” said Tyler Freres, Vice President of Sales for Freres Lumber Co. “The invention of MPP is the result of three years in R&D. MPP is a revolutionary step in manufactured wood products and the construction industry in terms of product, performance and process. Our new product will allow contractors to build taller buildings, faster and more affordably than ever before while providing structural equivalency to existing CLT offerings.”

MPP is an engineered wood Mass Timber Panel assembled by combining densely layered, extremely thin layers of Douglas Fir veneers. The MPP process creates a large-format engineered wood platform that can be cut to exact specifications and is constructed with stability across both axes of the panel.

Constructing a Mass Timber Panel entirely out of veneer achieves greater stiffness and density in equivalent thicknesses when compared to E2 CLT, the closest grade of CLT to MPP from an engineering standpoint. In addition, MPP can use small diameter timber (as small as 8” in diameter) to create large format, high-performance panels.

The company will continue to refine the design values through further empirical testing. Additional product configurations will be rolled out as more grades of Freres’s SCL products are certified. Freres also has scheduled additional tests for completion in September by the Southwest Research Institute which include E84-Flame Spread, and E119-Char Rate. The Tall Wood Design Institute will be completing additional testing in other areas, including acoustics, where firm design values are not available.

MPP is uniquely a U.S. product, Oregon developed and manufactured in the Santiam Canyon. For more information, the APA Product Report, PR-L325, is available.

Contact:

Laura Luthi – Media Contact – laura@wordsoutpr.com – (503) 341-7785

Source: Freres Lumber Co., Inc.