Patent ID: 8906480

Claim:
A support mat comprising: a plurality of vertically oriented individual wood members adhesively bonded to each other, each of the individual wood members having wide faces oriented parallel to a direction of a load applied to the support mat, the support mat having outboard wood members, the outwardly facing wide faces of the outboard wood members defining a wide face of the support mat; at least two protective edge members, each protective edge member having an inboard wide face, the at least two protective edge members positioned against one the wide faces of the support mat; and at least two substantially rigid fasteners extending through and connecting each of the protective edge members and adjacent wood members; wherein the wood members, protective edge members, and fasteners define a substantially rigid support mat having a substantially planar wide face; and wherein adjacent protective edge members are longitudinally spaced apart by a minimum distance long enough such that when the support mat bends in response to a load on its load-bearing face, each protective edge member is capable of pivoting about each of the at least two substantially rigid fasteners.