Strength demonstration model set for Timber Expo

With its strength demonstration model, BM TRADA aims to attract new business at this year’s Timber Expo show, which is taking place at the NEC Birmingham between 6-11 October.

As from this year, Timber Expo’s new owners, Media 10, are running it as a key part of UK Construction Week. This industry-wide event will bring nine construction-focused events – including Grand Designs Live – together in October.

The expanded show will attract thousands of workers from across the construction industry, allowing BM TRADA to showcase its timber expertise to a broad based audience from its 100 square metre ‘Live Zone’.

The company’s strength testing demonstration will be at its stand: the model has been designed to test the strength of various samples of timber, including those containing knots, slope of grain and holes.

 ‘Live Zone’

Based on BM TRADA’s full-sized model, which is located at its High Wycombe testing facility, the model will demonstrate how beams behave when subjected to a gradually increasing load. Upon failure, the structural performance can be ascertained and the failure results analysed.

BM TRADA’s technical experts will demonstrate elements of the PAS 24 test on an enhanced security timber window, as well as the difference in performance between two timber fire doors in a 30 minute video of a fire test being presented in the Toolbox talks theatre at 3.30 each day.

The company also aims to educate delegates on the intricacies of timber-frame construction with another model; this one a scaled down version of a timber-frame house, with cut away sections showing important detailing, including cladding and insulation.

Visitors will also be able to observe the process of timber species identification, with a member of BM TRADA’s technical team undertaking examinations of different species and demonstrating the methods employed to verify the wood species in a product. In addition, they will get an insight into the intricacies of timber strength grading – and the difference in approach between softwood and hardwood.

TTJ Timber Innovation Awards

Meanwhile, seven companies have made the shortlist for this year’s TTJ Timber Innovation Awards, joint sponsored by TRADA and Timber Expo, five of whom will be talking about their products and market developments in presentations to take place on the BM TRADA stand as part of its Timber Expo Innovation Zone.

The 2015 competition has again been split into two categories: Innovative product development, where some aspect of the whole or part of a product needs to demonstrate that it is innovative in its sector; and Innovative market development, where the innovation will have been applied to show how the market for a given product range has been exploited to greater effect.

In the product category, the shortlisted entries are: Tweedle Engineering, for its Excalibur R incising technology; Donaldson Timber Engineering for its SafeStep scaffold system; and Danzer UK Ltd for its 3D-Veneer.

In the market development category, the shortlisted entries are: Arch Timber Protection for its BARamine application technologies; and MBM Forest Products for its Simply Better Stud laminated strand lumber.

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