Lamella
A lamella is a layer of graded timber (35-45 mm) glued into a glulam or CLT member; stronger lamellae go in the high-stress outer zones for consistent strength.
Ask Chalkline about this →A lamella (plural lamellae) is an individual layer of solid graded timber, typically 35 to 45 mm thick, that is glued up with others to form an engineered timber member such as a glulam beam or a CLT panel. The whole point of the product is in how the lamellae are arranged.
Each lamella is stress-graded individually before glue-up, and the stronger ones are deliberately placed in the high-stress outer zones, the tension and compression faces of a beam where the bending stress is greatest, while weaker lamellae sit near the neutral axis in the middle where stress is low. This grading-and-placement is what gives a glulam beam its consistent published strength: every beam of a given GL grade behaves the same under load, even though the timber inside it is naturally variable. In a glulam the grain of every lamella runs parallel to the beam; in CLT the layers are crossed, with the grain of each lamella at right angles to the one above, which is what makes a CLT panel work in two directions.
For a builder the lamella detail matters in two ways. It is why an engineered timber member is more dimensionally stable and more reliably strong than a single piece of sawn timber the same size. And it is why you cannot rip down or notch a glulam or CLT member freehand: the outer lamellae are doing the structural work, so cutting into them removes exactly the timber the rating depends on. See glulam and engineered timber products.
Also known as: Lamination, laminate layer, board (in glue-up).
Category: Materials / Engineered timber.
Related
See also
References
- AS/NZS 1328 Glued laminated structural timber, Standards Australia (verified 2026-05-13)
- AS 1720.1 Timber structures, Design methods, Standards Australia (verified 2026-05-13)
Last updated: 2026-05-30. Verified: 2026-05-13. Quarterly review for currency.