Dan Ridley-Elis, head of the Centre for Wood Science an Technology at Edinburgh Napier University has been made convenor of the European Standards expert group that supports the production of graded timber, throughout Europe. David Gil-Moreno, former PhD student at Napier, and now researcher at NUI Galway, has taken over the role of secretary. TG1 reviews and approves reports for machine and visual grading of structural timber, and one very important aspect of its work is to avoid issues that could lead to unsafe grading.
TG1 is the shorthand name for CEN TC124/WG2/TG1, a task group within the CEN (European Standards) committee structure for timber structures. It consists of a panel of experts with knowledge of the correct standard procedures, and sufficient experience to be able to query potential problems. Since it is a vital matter for construction safety, the reports are thoroughly examined before they are approved. This feeds back into the standards development process, but also allows the timber industry to advance at a much faster pace than standards review can work.
Date posted
7 December 2018
Dan Ridley-Elis, head of the Centre for Wood Science an Technology at Edinburgh Napier University has been made convenor of the European Standards expert group that supports the production of graded timber, throughout Europe, under the Construction Products Regulations. This follows on from long-standing work in this area supporting the forest and timber industry through the Strategic Integrated Research in Timber project. David Gil-Moreno, former PhD student at Napier, and now researcher at NUI Galway under the joint "WoodProps" project, has taken over the role of secretary.
TG1 is the shorthand name for CEN TC124/WG2/TG1, a task group within the CEN (European Standards) committee structure for timber structures. This TG1 is something quite unusual in standardisation, and it exists because timber is more complicated than construction materials like steel and concrete. It reviews and approves reports for machine and visual grading of structural timber, and one very important aspect of its work is to avoid issues that could lead to unsafe grading.
TG1 consists of a panel of experts with knowledge of the correct standard procedures and sufficient experience to be able to query potential problems. Since it is a vital matter for construction safety, the reports are thoroughly examined before they are approved. This is done not to check that the standard procedures are followed correctly (although this is obviously a precondition), but to uncover issues that affect correct grading that were not anticipated when the standards were written. This feeds back into the standards development process, but also allows the timber industry to advance at a much faster pace than standards review can work.