36 / 40
36
|
BIOFORE
Versatile material
WISA-Spruce plywood is manufactured in the UPM
Pellos plywoodmill near Mikkeli, Finland and is
made from environmentally certified Nordic Spruce.
Spruce plywood is created by gluing together
multiple wood veneers, and each layer is attached
in an adjacent direction to the previous one. It is a
strong and durable material that is easy to work with
and surprisingly light.
For example, plywood is often used for the load
bearing parts of sofas and other furniture, as well
as for structural and interior applications in busses
and other vehicles.
The versatility of WISA-Spruce also oers bene-
fits to distributors. Since it can be used for many
dierent applications, distributors don’t have to
carry a wide selection of dierent products, ensuring
that stock turnover remains high.
WISA-Spruce is shipped directly from the mill or
via storage sites in the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands
and Germany.
“That way customers don’t have to order the
product from the other side of the world and buy
several months’ worth of stock at once, which would
tie up capital needlessly,” says
Riku Härkönen
,
Product Manager of WISA-Spruce
Light but strong
Spruce plywood weighs on average 450 kilogrammes
per cubic metre, whereas a similar competing
product such as South American pine plywood
weighs over 100 kilogrammes more per cubic metre.
In addition to being light, spruce plywood panels
are extremely straight, meaning that they are easy
to use: on a construction site the panels can be
moved by one worker alone. This oers clear cost
savings for the constructor.
Developers and builders appreciate solutions
that minimise the weight of structures. For example,
the 22 millimetre thick OSB panels in roof struc-
tures can be replaced with 15 millimetre spruce
plywood panels, which both reduces the amount
of material needed and lowers the structural weight
by almost 50%. This represents a significant dier-
ence to the supporting structure load. Furthermore,
builders really appreciate the durability and reli-
ability of WISA-Spruce. In the right conditions,
it will remain unchanged for over 100 years.
TEXT
MATTI REMES
PHOTOGRAPHY
UPM
Everything
From
Spruce
Plywood