Glued laminated timber (glulam) is an industrial wooden product for load bearing purposes. Glulam consists of at least three dried softwood boards, which are flatwise glued together. As it it strength-graded and refined by lamination its permissible bending stress is up to 50% higher than the permissible bending stress of the usually used solid wood. As a result of the production-procedure glulam members have smaller shrinkage-deformations and a higher resistance to cracking.
Beside simple straight beams with rectangular cross-sections, members with varying cross-sections or curved shape are usual. Spatially curved or twisted members can also be manufactured.