{"id":11433,"date":"2023-10-06T16:21:56","date_gmt":"2023-10-06T05:21:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/?p=11433"},"modified":"2024-10-21T20:27:38","modified_gmt":"2024-10-21T10:27:38","slug":"timberlink-rolls-out-first-clt-panel-before-nextimber-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/timberlink-rolls-out-first-clt-panel-before-nextimber-launch\/","title":{"rendered":"Timberlink Rolls Out First CLT Panel Before NeXTimber Launch!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Timberlink has pressed its first cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels in a significant development in Australia’s supply of mass timber products. It follows the production of the plant’s first glue-laminated timber beam in August 2023.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In July<\/em><\/a>, Wood Central reported that Timberlink’s new plant would accept orders from October 2023, with full-scale production to begin later this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It will use local timbers from the Green Triangle pine plantations, processed at its adjoining Tarpeena facility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Known as NeXTimber by Timberlink<\/em><\/a>, “it is the only combined radiata pine facility to produce CLT and GLT in Australia,” according to David Oliver, Timberlink’s General Manager of Sales, Marketing and Corporate Affairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The Timberlink team is holding the first GLT beam produced on its newly commissioned GLT line. Left to right: Chief Marketing, Sales & Corporate Affairs Officer David Oliver, CEO Ian Tyson, CLT\/GLT Operations Manager Patrick Dark, Major Strategic Projects Manager Ranabir Ghose, NeXTimber Project Manager David Gittins, Chief Manufacturing Officer Jodie Murdoch, Production Manager Brian Murphy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“The team has been working towards this moment,” with the facility’s construction starting in 2020, “and to see the hard work of so many come to fruition is very rewarding.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was an air of positivity with Patrick Dark, Timberlink’s CLT and GLT Operations Manager, on hand to see the panel finally come off the line on time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Everybody involved in installing, testing and commissioning our NeXTimber equipment should be proud of what we’ve accomplished.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The newly commissioned line will produce 16M long and 3.5M wide panels with material that is the shorter links finger jointed and fed into the new plant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In J<\/em>une<\/a>, Wood Central reported that NeXTimber by Timberlink and domestic suppliers Xlam and Cusp add to more than 20 importers who have serviced the market in recent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The $63 million investment, which follows a $100 million investment in upgrading its sawmill processing facilities, “will increase our productive capacity by about 20 per cent,” Timberlink CEO Ian Tyson told ABC News last year.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Then the material that is the shorter links will be finger jointed and fed into the new CLT plant.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interest in CLT is booming, with the Australian and NZ market expecting to exceed 800,000 cubic metres by 2026<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first GLT beam produced at the plant coincided with The Seed to Structure tour – where South Australian politicians travelled to the Green Triangle to tour the Timberlink facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The Timberlink team with the South Australian Parliamentary Select Committee in Timberlink\u2019s NeXTimber CLT & GLT plant. (Photo Credit: Timberlink)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“From our first sod turn in February 2022 to producing our first GLT beam in August 2023, we are well on our way to full production,” Mr Tyson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Oliver, the “enthusiastic and growing” uptake of the products by the construction industry is a “firm nod to moving into a sustainable future,” with timber hailed as “the ultimate sustainable resource.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n