What is the best adhesive for timber glulam wood beams?

One of our clients based in Yorkshire, specialises in building engineered timber solutions which includes Laminating Timber Structures, Glulam Stock Beams, Cross Laminated Timber and Feature Trusses.  

THE BUSINESS SOLUTION

Our client reached out to us as they were needing not only a supplier of adhesives but a partner who could support them in building efficiencies into their production line.

Structural beams, and other engineered timber structures, are works of art, but as with all works of art, brining efficiencies into bespoke manufacturing processes is not always that easy.  Our client was having issues with inconsistent bond quality, curing inefficiencies, and slow application methods.  Ureka was brought into help overcome these challenges

Firstly, Ureka performed an in-depth discovery audit.  Our unique approach to helping our clients is crystalised in our audit process.  We will spend time with our clients to go through their whole production line, checking the processed, and highlighting any potential areas of improvement.  Once we had completed this audit, we presented our findings to our client.

A production trial was then instigated, and our technical team were on site to help our client use the product correctly, and to help train the operators on the best way of using the adhesive system.  We have noticed over many years of experience that training operators to correctly use the adhesive saves time and money for our client’s time and time again.

The production trials were successful and we were able to record the following improvements

• Increased the cure speed by 12%
• Reduced failure rate by 4%
• Increased adhesive coverage by 8%

Overall, the client has saved 18% in costs for the bonding section of their production line.

THE PRODUCTS

The adhesive sytem used by our client is Prefere 4050 resorcinol resin and Prefere 5750 hardener which is a phenol resorcinol resin designed for high structural strength, weather resistant wood bonding applications.  Furthermore,  Prefere 4050 carries the EN301 Type 1 accreditation required for structural laminated timber structures.