Journal of Commerce- March 27, 2017
StructureCraft Builders Corporation is building a 50,000-square-foot, all-wood facility in Abbotsford, B.C. to manufacture dowel laminated timber (DLT). DLT is made entirely from softwood and hardwood with no metal, glue or plastic.
“We expect the plant to be completed by the end of summer 2017 and the first DLT to be available for sale in January 2018,” said Lucas Epp, StructureCraft’s head of engineering.He said his company will be the first manufacturer of DLT in North America.
DLT panels have all the wood fibre going in a single direction and use dowelling patterns instead of nails or layers of glue.The panels can be used for floor, wall and roof structures.Epp said DLT is less expensive than glued products to manufacture. The bright idea to use hardwood dowels to connect softwood boards was conceived in Switzerland in the 1990s. Today there are about 20 DLT manufacturers in Europe, most of them in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.