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Fluor Gorporofion Purchoses

Summerbell Roof Strucfures

The Fluor Corporation, Ltd., has purchased the assets of Summerbell Roof Structures (a California corporation), one of the nation's largest manufacturers of glued-laminated iimber products and wood roof trusses, and it will become a division of Fluor. Harold S. Bender, assistant to the president of Fluor Products Co., manufacturing division of the parent organization, has been appointed general manager of Summerbell. Management, supervisory and operating personnel will be retained, Bender ,said. At present, there are about 100 Summerbell employes in Los Angeles.

"This acquisition will add an important netv companion line to our present wood manufacturing business, which includes cooling towers, tanks, wood stave pipe and pole-line crossarms,', stated James P. Wiseman, president of Fluor Products Co. "We foresee excellent prospects for growth in sales and profits within the gluedJaminated timber construction industrv.,' he said.

The Summerbell Roof Structures division r,r'ill design. engineer, fabricate and erect glued-laminated wood products-, including arches, beams, structural timbers and l-amella roofs (an European- development accomplishing the same purpose as trusses, giving clear floor _space with no posts of columns), as well as -rafters, stringers, Sundeck roof coverings and all other types of engineered timber structures. The acquisition includes sole right to the name, patents, trademarks, and various other assets related to the wood fabrication business.

_ The purchase excludes real property and certain other assets. Fluor will lease Summerbell'i eiisting plant at B2S E. 2gth Street, Los Angeles.

Summerbell was founded in 1924 under the name of Trussless Roof Company. The original partners were Charles C. Calvert and Vincent Cates. Mr. Calvert died in 1954. Mrs. Charles C. Calvert, his widow, served as president and director of the organization until the recerrt acquisition. In 1926, the partnership. acquired the assets and patents held by W. J. Summerbell, originator of the so-called Sumrnerbell truises, rnd .t the same time obtained the lease to Summerbell's plant in Los Angeles. The present plant was built il 1940, and has been expinded subsllantially since that time. The office buildimg was -erected in 1945.

Summerbell was one of the first companies to develop gluedlaminated timber products applicable to roof structures. The modern, glued-laminated timber construction industry has achieved phenomenal growth since World War II, with i present national market of approximately $50,000,000 a year. prior to the war, it was a relatively small industrv, and was generally viewed as an experimental idea.

Today, glued-laminated roof structures are accepted structural materials used widely in almost every type of structure, including churches, schobls, bridges, commercial and industrial buildingi. This new and distinctive product, developed through research and engineering, uses a gluing and laminating production method that literally "grows" structural shapes and sizes oreviouslv unheard of in timber construction.

Structural glued-laminated timber comprises an assembly of wood laminations in which the grain of all laminations is approximately parallel, longitudinally, and in which the laminations are bonded with adhesives. Douglas fir is generally used by West Coast fabricators, although other materials also are used. These engineered structural members are "factory grown" of seasoned, dry structural lumber. Designed to specified timber shapes and sizes, they are stronger than other members of_equal weight, and lighter thart other members of equal strength, according to the American Institute of Timber Construction'

Heavy timber construction is recognized as an exceptionally good fire risk, compared to other structural materials. Wood timbers char or burn slowly, but do not collapse under intense heat. For this reason, timber construction (sprinklered) ge.erally carries a proportionately low fire-insurance rate.

Timber buildings which have been in service for many generations are commonplace throughout the civilized world. For examole. Connecticut hall on the campus of Yale university was built in 1750. Structural framing *i. heavy timber. In -1953, when the building was modernized, the timber framing was found to be sound, and much of it still remains to serve for several more generations.

Durability of modern, engineered tin,ber construction will be even greater than that of older timber structures which have served for hundreds of years. the Institute states.

Bunting Heods Ponelyte 5.F. Office

Robert L. Bunting heads the newly established San Francisco office of the Panelyte division of St. Regis Paper Co. He comes from Memphis.