Production and Economics of Finger-Jointing Structural Timber in Sweden

Summary

In Sweden there are 42 plants for finger-jointing of structural timber. Most of them were manufactured and installed during the period 1974 to 1976.

Production in 1980 has been estimated at about 225,000 m³. The collective capacity of the plants amounts to 270,000 m³ (manufacture in one shift) which means that about 83% of the capacity would be utilized.

A finger-jointing plant will today require a total investment of Kr 2.8 millions in machinery and buildings. The costs for finger-jointing are two thirds fixed and are, therefore, greatly influenced by the level of production. At a rate of production of 1,400 joints a day, the cost of 50 × 150 mm will be Kr 6.27 per joint or Kr 217.- per m³.

The coarser the dimension, the higher the cost per joint but as the number of joints will increase greatly with smaller dimensions the cost per m³ will be definitely lower for coarser dimensions.

Finger-jointing should primarily be used for manufacturing long lengths of coarse dimensions.