In early July, Katerra CLT products successfully completed product testing for first project use, conducted by its 3rd party agency PFS-TECO, Kattera announced. Company will produce both 5-layer and 3-layer panels, used primarily for floors. Next on track is the testing and certification of 7-layer and 9-layer panels, including CLT shear wall panels to be used for lateral stability, providing even faster and less costly construction. Master panels will come out of its press with a format size of 12ft wide x 60ft long – representing the largest CLT press in the world. The master panels are then fed for finish fabrication into three state-of-the-art 5-axis gantry CNC machines, creating the greatest possible production flexibility.
At scale, the factory has the annual manufacturing capacity to provide thousands of
apartments, student housing units, and more than 11 million square-feet
of floors and roofs – making it the largest capacity CLT facility in the
U.S. Hans-Erik Blomgren PE, SE, Technical Director of Mass Timber at
Katerra says, "Katerra’s CLT factory is the first high-volume production
facility in the United States. Our ability to supply a
high-performance, quality product to projects nationwide is a
significant advancement in changing the way we build with mass timber in
North America."
Photo: Catalyst CLT panels being assembled onto glulam beams in the Spokane Valley factory
