Patent ID: 8420222

Claim:
A method of producing an engineered elongate structural lumber product of rectangular section of width W, height H and length L, said method comprising providing ranked streams of contributing finger jointed stick assemblies of at least the length L having been finger jointed from contributing sticks of any length and all of at least the width W and a thickness T of at least 4 mm, the ranking being by reference to a contributing stick test for a strength or stiffness characteristic, or both, into a ranked category for the contributing finger jointed stick assemblies; and laminating, at one or more laminating steps, the ranked categories of the contributing finger jointed stick assemblies (a) to provide, with a build up of the thickness T, the dimension of at least the height H and at least the length L thereby to produce said engineered elongate structural lumber product, or a product being dressed down to dimensions of said engineered elongate structural lumber product, and (b) to provide at least one zone of the rectangular section having contributing finger jointed stick assemblies having at least a higher category of the strength or stiffness characteristic than elsewhere, as a result of deliberate profiling by ranked streams at the lamination steps.