Ease For Welds: Wednesday's Word(s) Of The Week

Easing for welds refers to beveling the edges of a glulam beam where it fits with a welded steel assembly. Unlike eased edges, which use a roundover bit, eases for welds use a chamfer bit. Easing for welds is one of those little details, that actually take a fair amount of time and coordination, but that no one really notices until it isn't there.

When two steel plates are welded, the most common type of weld is a fillet, which fills the corner between the two plates with a triangle of weld material. Without easing for welds, the edges of glulam would hit the weld before making contact with the steel plates. This could adversely affect the installed position of glulam parts in many ways. At the same time, the extent of chamfered edges should match the steel parts in order to maintain a finished look.

*Wednesday's Word Of The Week is a feature on Unalam's Wood Times Blog. Each Wednesday our structural engineer, Rik Vandermeulen, will discuss a new term associated with glulam manufacturing. He will do this until we run out of words. If there is a timber or glulam term that you have heard of and want to know more about, let us know in the comments.