Improving cooperation between the milling equipment in CLT timber mills and design software offers the potential to create more beautiful wood structures more affordably and more quickly.

What kind of problem is this project trying to solve?

CLT (cross laminated timber) is a wood panel product made from glueing layers of solid-sawn timber together. It is primarily used in the construction of residential buildings. The milling equipment used by CLT mills in Finland offer plenty of potential, as they are capable of much more demanding tasks than merely cutting wall elements with right angles with millimetre precision.

By utilising the potential of this equipment and design software more effectively, we could add finished details, such as structural wood joints, directly to the elements when they are manufactured. This would result in more aesthetic, cheaper, faster and healthier modern wood construction.

In practice, though, cutting complex shapes by milling still poses some difficulties. Inadequate information contained in a milling model results in burns, tears and chipping when creating more complex milling shapes. These have to be repaired and tidied up at the construction site. A typical construction project leaves no time for the necessary development work, resulting in recurring errors.

Objective: to produce open guidelines for utilising design and manufacturing tools

The objective of our project is to generate basic information on this subject and use it to compile open guidelines provided to designers and timber mills.

We are manufacturing various prototypes with a 1:1 scale, with which we are enhancing compatibility between design and manufacturing tools. The information generated will be compiled and made publicly available on the internet.

The project consists of rapid testing cycles. Work is organised in the form of a tight feedback loop in which the digital form input and the physical end result can be made to match.

Our multidisciplinary working group consists of architects and fine wood carpenters.

Who benefits?

Architects, construction engineers, designers and CLT mills.

Optimising quality in the milling forms of CLT elements through management of the digital process
Duration: 10 October 2017–29 June 2018
Implemented by: Arkkitehtitoimisto & Company Oy

Contact information

Emmi Keskisarja, architect (Finnish Association of Architects), &’
Email: emmi(at)eetj.fi
Tel: +358 41 544 5989

Tommi Alatalo, fine wood carpenter
Email: tommi.alatalo(at)gmail.com
Tel: +358 44 059 3509

Antrei Hartikainen, fine wood carpenter
Email: antrei.hartikainen(at)gmail.com
Tel: +358 50 402 1065

Heikki Paso, fine wood carpenter
Email: heikki.paso(at)gmail.com
Tel: +358 50 546 5520

Janne Teräsvirta, architect (Finnish Association of Architects), &'
Email: janne(at)eetj.fi
Tel: +358 40 543 4243