Massive plywood panels and manufacturers: a comprehensive systematic literature review and case study

Abstract

Massive timber is a category of heavy green engineered products, manufactured from glued or glued-free processes, to be used in more predictable structural performance in industrialized walls, floors and frames. Massive plywood panel emerges as a novelty for mass timber construction and, therefore, little information is scientifically available. Aligning with the Sustainable Development Goal 9: ‘Industry, innovation and infrastructures’, this study aims to verify this literature gap and raise topics regarding massive plywood panels using a structured systematic review literature. From bibliometric analysis, 12 journal papers, 10 conference papers and an editorial were prospected using Scopus and Web of Science databases. A predominance of studies from English language nations was confirmed. Seismic and monotonic performance of massive plywood are frequent topics in these investigations, whose results have indicated a promising scenario for construction. As no study on industry is available, a case study on massive plywood was sequentially developed to discuss features of commercial panels and perspectives of respective global industry. The North American Freres Engineered Wood and Finnish Metsä Wood are the only active manufacturers, and their massive plywood panels have been manufactured from modern production technologies and environmentally certified practices to be applied in low- and high-rise industrialized buildings.