A simple and accessible tool for understanding the fundamental terms related to wood. From the meaning of sapwood and heartwood to the characteristics of texture, grain, and density. A useful resource for professionals, citizens, and students who want to familiarize themselves with the language of the sector.
See “floor”.
Horizontal structure inside a building.
A wooden element with a trapezoidal cross-section intended to be incorporated into the load-distributing layer underneath wooden floors with the minor base coplanar to it.
Horizontal structure, located within a building, that includes the primary structure and/or sub-floor and flooring.
Long solid wood element with parallel edges, regular thickness, profiled sides and end grain with or without profiles. It can be assembled with other similar elements.
Narrow longitudinal depression (or relief) on round wood surface.
In a sandwich panel, it is the core consisting of liquid plastic foam expanded into all the spaces between the panels that serves both to insulate and to support the faces of the components.
Setting of doors, windows, wardrobes and similar.
English units of measurement.
Treatment in which absorption occurs as a result of changes in environmental conditions (pressure, temperature).
Air drying process using additional forced air flows generated by fans placed along the sides of the stacks.
Kiln in which air circulation is provided by mechanical devices, such as bellows or fans.
Inorganic inclusion in wood (e.g. metal pieces, stones, etc.).
Portion of material that cannot be separated from wood in the supply chain of recovered wood.
Ecosystem with a predominance of tree plants, of natural or artificial origin, generally multifunctionally managed.
Industry that uses trees as raw material and is involved in the marketing of its products.
Permanent road consisting of an artificial or otherwise improved roadbed. It is mainly used for transporting men, equipment, wood and timber.
Set of forest roads. It is divided into a main network, or forest roads, and a secondary network, or striproads.
Control officer working in a forest context.
A vehicle for handling timber in stacks or bundles, generally mounted on pallets. It is equipped, on its front end, with two horizontal arms that can be raised or lowered mechanically.
A highly reactive organic compound of formula (HCHO) used as a component of most adhesives for wood-based panels. Free formaldehyde emissions in the workplace and in the installation of panels are subject to regulation by authorities in many countries.
The equipment by which the mat is formed for manufacturing particleboard and fiberboard. It consists of a distributing machine and a forming caul or tape.
A shaped surface on which the wood to be bent or shaped is place
Machinery used for forming a particle mat.
Operation of controlled distribution, by means of a mechanical or pneumatic system, of a set of particles deposited to form a mat. In the case of fibre bundles, it is called ‘felting’.
Articulated tractor that has, on the rear unit, a loading platform usually equipped with a hydraulic knuckle-boom loader.
Pallet in which the forks of a forklift can be introduced from four sides.
Juxtaposition of highly decorative sliced veneers in four pieces around a common point: the joint lines form a cross.
The complete or nearly complete separation of wood tissues, in other words, a more or less complete fracture. If it occurs perpendicular to the direction of the grain, it is called a “transverse fracture”; if, as almost always happens in wood, it is accompanied by defibration, it is a “frayed fracture”; in the opposite case it is a sharp fracture, and in the intermediate case it is “almost sharp.”
Construction where structural parts are either made of wood or depend on a wooden frame for support. Typically, wood framing is covered with wooden structural panels for roofs, walls, and floors.
Shaped piece of wood with the function of a frame or joint between different types of flooring.
Wooden structure behind or around the sash, consisting of vertical uprights and a horizontal cross-piece.
An assembly consisting of a frame and one or more consecutive sheathing panels connected either to one or both sides of the frame.
End-to-end extension of a framed wall, which includes one or more sub-assemblies of a framed wall
Refuse material produced by larvae or adult insects while tunneling into wood.
A wood assortment with no visible knots on its surface.
Liquid water in the cell lumen and intercellular spaces. It is totally detached from the cell walls (neglecting capillarity effects).
A flooring system consisting of units of different lengths and widths. The elements are arranged in a parallel direction.
Air fed into the kiln by the aspiration fans at the temperature and relative humidity conditions of the external environment.
Wood that has not yet completed its seasoning process because it has been felled recently.
Insect belonging to the Bostrichidae family.
An earthmoving machine suitable for picking up and lifting loose material (soil) either for loading it onto transport vehicles or for transporting it over short distances. It consists of a tractor, wheeled or tracked, that is frontally connected to a bucket that can be lifted by means of two articulated side arms. The control of arm movements and bucket tilting is always hydraulic.
See “frost crack”.
Fissure caused by the action of frost on wood and bark that develops longitudinally along a radial plane. It has a peculiar callus of scarring that appears as a semicylindrical protrusion covering the lesion.
Structure carrying the spore-producing organs.
Acronym for “Forest Stewardship Council.” It is a certification body for the sustainability of forest management.
Treatment process of impregnating wood with preservatives or chemicals in which a depression is performed to remove air from inside the cell lumens before the preservative is introduced. This promotes greater absorption and retention of the preservative in the treated portion. In detail, it is a vacuum/pressure/vacuum procedure that includes the following steps: – initial vacuum to remove a portion of the air present in the interior of the wood; – introduction of impregnant and application of pressure; – discharge of the impregnant and final vacuum to remove excess liquid from the surface of the wood. With this procedure, the wood cells remain partially or completely filled with impregnant. Examples of the full-cell process are the Bethell process and the Burnett process.
Size expressed by omitting unit fractions.
Sawn timber which has been cut to a size allowing for shrinkage and further processing.
Plywood whose outer layers are composed of non-jointed plies.
Sawn timber having angle between rays and a face of 10 degrees or less (or angle between growth rings and a face of 80 degrees or more).
Toxic substance, usually an insecticide, that is applied to insect-infested wood in an enclosed environment in the form of a volatile gas, vapor, liquid, or solid.
Treatment carried out with a chemical agent capable of reaching the commodity wholly or mainly in a gaseous state.
Treatment of infested wood by controlled application of a toxic gas, e.g. methyl bromide
Decomposition of wood caused by fungi. It is possible to distinguish between: – advanced (or typical) decay, which corresponds to the final stage in which the alteration is easily recognisable. The wood is soft, spongy and variously cracked and generally shows a marked colouration; – incipient degradation, which corresponds to the initial stage of an alteration that has not progressed sufficiently to make the wood soft or perceptibly affect its hardness. It is generally accompanied by a slight colour change (discolouration) of the wood itself.
Fungi that reproduce exclusively by asexual spore called “conidium.”
Chemical substance that inhibits fungal growth and/or devitalizes mycelium that has already invaded woody tissues.
Saprophytic and parasitic plant organisms characterized by the absence of chlorophyll. For their nourishment they use organic substances produced by other organisms, by degrading them through enzymes.
Kiln in which heat is produced by a hot-air furnace.
A mixture of particles, adhesive and additives ready for the forming process. The term is also sometimes used generically to refer to particles at any stage of their production process.
Cambial initial that originates an axial element of the xylem or phloem. In tangential section, it is spindle-shaped (fusiform).
Axial parenchyma cell derived from a fusiform initial without subdivision.
See “fusiform ray”.
Literally, a spindle-shaped ray in tangential section. Mainly used for rays containing resin channels in conifers. It is also called a “lenticular ray.”
Wood species Scientific name: Aucoumea klaineana Origin: Central Africa
Fence made of chestnut wood stakes debarked and split according to the natural arrangement of the fibres; widely used in France as a barrier to stop the progression of the dunes at the edge of the sea.
In English and French it turns out to be a “gap” caused by assembly and bonding defects. According to UNI standards it can refer to the defects called “removal” (a tear in an inner ply that shows the plane of bonding)
A joint whose two parts do not fit together perfectly and therefore leave gaps.
Adhesive suitable for applications where the surfaces to be joined are not in close contact with each other but are separated by a certain distance.
The thickness of the metal sheet that constitutes the blade of a saw.
Fiber with more or less sparsely lignified inner wall and gelatinous appearance ( frequently associated with tension wood).
It includes all non-load-bearing applications, such as furniture and fitments.
Measuring the volume of aggregate timber with a fixed shape.
Forest area with no arboreal vegetation.
Fungus belonging to the Basidiomycetes. It causes brown rot to softwood and hardwoods. It is occurred in wood placed outdoors.
Originally a gelatinous protein substance derived from the horns, skin, bones or cartilage of animals and specially processed to obtain adhesive properties. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for ‘adhesive’, there is still a tendency to use it to refer specifically to adhesives of natural origin.
A mixture, generally used in plywood bonding, consisting of an adhesive (resin), excipients, additives, a hardener solution and a solvent (usually consisting of water) mixed together in predetermined proportions.
Machine for distributing glue on timbers, plies, etc. before assembly.
A machine used in plywood production to apply a thin layer of adhesive mixture to the surface of certain ply. The term commonly indicates a roller spreader.
That has undergone the gluing operation. See ‘gluing’.
It includes glued laminated timber (known as glulam), block glued laminated timber, glued laminated timber with large finger joints and glued solid timber for structural uses.
Structural timber element consisting of at least two parallel to grain laminations, which may consist of one or two boards side by side, with a finished thickness from 6 mm to 45 mm (inclusive).
A wood-based product consisting of layers of sawn timber arranged with a parallel grain and glued together after defects have been reduced by cross-cutting and butt-jointing the sawn timber making up the same layer. It is generally used for structural applications in the form of large beams made from sawn timber selected on the basis of its mechanical strength characteristics glued together using adhesives capable of guaranteeing adequate durability and reliability. The aforementioned butt jointing of sawn timber allows the production of wooden structural elements with a much larger section and length than is normally possible to obtain from solid wood assortments. By adopting appropriate arrangements during the production process, glued laminated timber elements can also be manufactured with variable cross-sections and certain bending radiuses.
A wood-based composite made from at least two LVL boards or lamellas by means of face bonding.
A structural wood element whose total cross-sectional area does not exceed 280 mm. It consists of two to five glued layers, essentially parallel, having the same strength class or manufacturer’s specific strength class and a finished layer thickness between 45 mm and 85 mm (inclusive). Note: The outer lamination may have a reduced thickness compared to the inner ones as a result of the planing of the glued solid wood element.
Laying system in which the constituent elements of the flooring are attached to the underlying surface by adhesives.
Trace of the gluing surface observable along the peripheral edges of a semi-finished product or panel composed of laminated wood lath or plies (e.g., a laminated timber, plywood, LVL).
GLVL composed of LVL panels or lamellae glued parallel to the grain of the outermost veneer, whereby at least one panel or lamella is LVL-C.
GLVL composed of LVL-P panels or lamellae glued parallel to the grain of the outermost veneer.
Class or degree of compliance with the properties or characteristics relating to the particular requirements of goods or services intended for the same functional use. The class reflects a pre-established diversity of requirements, or if not pre-established, a recognised diversity, focusing on the functional use/cost ratio. A high class product may have inadequate quality to meet certain requirements and vice versa (such as a luxury hotel with poor service or a small boarding house with excellent service). When class is referred to by a number, usually 1 is used for the highest and 2, 3, 4 for the others, in descending order. If the class is instead indicated by symbols (e.g. by the number of star ratings) the lowest class has the least number of symbols.
Electronic scanning device capable of distinguishing marks, colours or voids when a semi-finished product (mostly a sawn timber or ply) crosses its scanned field of vision.
Self-propelled earthmoving machine with 2 or 3 independently oscillating axles with central blade swiveling in all directions. It is used for leveling surfaces (roads and trail), digging ditches, etc.