Germany’s Finnforest Merk will demonstrate the architectural diversity that can be achieved with engineered timber when it exhibits at the Big 5 show this month.

Commenting on its participation, a spokesperson from the company Sara Koller says: “We will be showcasing a series of keynote projects using processed Kerto, Glulam, plywood and Finnforest’s other engineered timber solutions, which will enable architects and specifiers to visualise the possibilities that building with engineered wood products create.”
Finnforest is a leading provider of advanced wood-based solutions and a part of the Metsäliitto Group, the 10th largest forest industry group in the world. It offers its wood products to a diverse range of customer segments, including building and construction, the transport vehicle industry, other industrial customers as well as building material and DIY (do-it-yourself) chains. Finnforest products are based on Nordic premium timber supplied by the forest owners of the Metsäliitto Cooperative.
“Underpinning the quality of our materials themselves is the unrivalled engineering excellence of Finnforest’s Germany-based technical partner Merk,” says Koller. “For instance, Finnforest Merk has created the impressive internal cladding feature of the new terminal building at Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris, which is just one example of the wide range of finished projects executed by the company all over the globe.”
Elaborating on the project, Koller says, “Finnforest’s technical acumen and innovative products helped to realise Aéroports de Paris’ (ADP) vision for a beautiful 700 m concourse of Terminal 2E, at Charles De Gaulle Airport. The immensely challenging project involved the precise engineering and installation of suspended internal cladding formed of 150 structural timber arches made of Finnish birch plywood.
“A total of 130 standard arches, each comprising six sections of up to 8.5 m, were manufactured at the Finnforest Merk’s production and engineering facility.  Meticulous attention was given to the aesthetics. Each 8.5m section was built from over a 100 European ash-faced Finnish birch plywood battens, the grading and sequence of which was prescribed by ADP, after considering several samples. Every section had to be built up using this required sequence.
“Precision throughout the whole process was key to fulfilling the required tolerances. Bespoke jigs were custom-built to ensure accuracy, and as a result not one arch section was rejected on site. In addition, a further 20 arches, which form the end arches for each of the 10 zones, were built up on site, as they were too wide to prefabricate off site and transport. Hundreds of individual battens were fixed, again adhering to a specific sequence as stipulated by the architect.”
Finnforest, which employs 4,500 people in 20 countries, and has sales exceeding €1.4 billion ($1.78 billion), is divided into four segments:
• Solid Wood: This business line concentrates on long-term customer relationships in sawn timber and upgraded sawn timber. Its product range includes premium quality Nordic pine and spruce sawn timber, interior and exterior products, structural timber, components, DIY products, impregnated timber products and ThermoWood products.
Nordic wood has excellent properties, says the spokesperson: “The competitiveness of Nordic sawn timber is based on the properties of the raw material and its easy machinability. Slowly grown Nordic softwood has excellent moisture and thermal properties and its superior strength/weight ratio makes it highly suitable for load-bearing structures.
Solid Wood’s main customers are DIY chains, merchants, planing processors, industry and distributors and its main markets are Finland, Western Europe, Japan, other Asia-Pacific markets and the Mediterranean area.
Production units are located mainly in Finland, where there are 10 sawmills and two upgrading units. In addition, there is one saw mill in Estonia and one upgrading unit in St. Petersburg, Russia. Each saw mill specialises in either Nordic pine or spruce.
• Plywood: The Plywood business line concentrates on providing high-quality plywood products and focuses on the customer-oriented services worldwide. Its products include Finnish birch plywood and Finnish spruce plywood.
Explaining their uses, the spokesperson says, “Birch plywood can be used for a wide range of indoor and outdoor applications. The products come with or without film overlay and in various panel sizes and thicknesses. Spruce plywood is an economical, general-purpose panel for both interior and exterior construction work.
Customers for this business line are industrial end-users worldwide, such as the transportation vehicle industry, LNG ships, concrete shuttering, construction industry, agricultural and playground structures, and the wood-working industry.
The Plywood business line has production units in Finland and Germany. 
• Building Solutions: Its Building Solutions unit is a leading supplier of advanced wood products in Europe. It provides state-of-the-art, high quality engineered wood products for DIY chains, merchants and industrial end-users, by using the products in their own business solutions.
The product range consists of premium quality LVL and glulam products, further engineered to industrial components, prefabricated units and structural systems. Examples are I-joists, columns, beams and headers for various construction applications. Building Solutions also offers tailormade wood-based solutions according to customer requirements developed from its standard products, and delivered worldwide.
The business line’s major market is Europe as well as industrial end-users worldwide.
• Upgrading and Distribution: Serving the retail and merchandising businesses throughout Europe, the Upgrading and Distribution business line focuses on delivering the highest quality timber and timber-based products coupled with leading manufacturing and logistics operations.
“Serving some of Europe’s largest retail and merchant customers, the Upgrading and Distribution line prides itself on delivering profitable business partnership focused around long-term development and growth,” says the spokesperson.
There are six upgrading and distribution units in the UK, one in Germany and two in France.