SLB Funded Research Opens New Opportunities for Wood

With support from the Softwood Lumber Board (SLB) together with Arup, with support from MyTiCon, and DR Johnson, recently completed three successful fire tests on one-hour glulam beam to column connectors, adding to the evidence base that proves that mass timber construction is a fire-safe alternative in mid-rise construction.

The tests were undertaken to demonstrate that the connection configurations can achieve the one-hour fire rating needed to meet the International Building Code (IBC) fire test standard. The IBC allows for buildings up to six floors to use timber construction to form part of load-bearing structural systems. However, there are currently no off-the-shelf solutions for beam to column connectors. The products tested can provide an important, cost-efficient solution in mid-rise timber construction.