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Don’t Forget! You Saw it in the
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June 2024 #16299 Page #62
Why West Fraser is the Most Trussed Name in Lumber By Greg Bates
s North America’s largest lumber manufacturer, West Fraser supplies the truss market with mechanically graded lumber, dimension lumber, and premium products such as Prime, Select Structural, and HiLine.
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Founded nearly seven decades ago West Fraser began operations in 1955 when brothers Sam, Bill, and Pete Ketcham founded a small planing mill in Quesnel, British Columbia, Canada. The trio went on to develop mills throughout the region. Today, West Fraser is the largest wood products manufacturer in the world, with over 60 mills in the US, Canada, the UK, and Europe. Our entire product line is derived from responsibly sourced and sustainably managed forests, and is used in home construction, repair, and remodeling.
Mechanically graded lumber North American truss manufacturers have come to rely on West Fraser for a steady supply of mechanically graded lumber to manufacture high-performing roof and floor trusses. Of West Fraser’s 32 North American lumber mills, 14 produce machine stress-rated lumber (MSR) and machine evaluated lumber (MEL), using both SYP and SPF.
Machine-graded lumber: The finer points West Fraser was one of the first lumber manufacturers to move from visual grading to machine grading over 20 years ago. Visually graded lumber is assessed by humans who visually inspect each piece for defects and grade it accordingly, based on predetermined standards. In comparison, machine-graded lumber is evaluated using automated systems that utilize sensors and algorithms to measure characteristics such as density, moisture content, and knot size to assign a grade. Machine grading also tends to result in greater consistency and speed than human inspection. Regardless of how your lumber is graded, each piece of lumber is grade stamped, indicating its grade, dryness, mill number, and accrediting agency. Continued next page
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