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PS 1 Committee Meeting
Las Vegas, NV
February 3, 2009
Madison Area Builders Association
Madison, Wisconsin
March 6-8, 2009
Chicago, IL
March 11, 2009
Vancouver, BC Canada
April 19-21, 2009
Vancouver, BC Canada
April 21-23, 2009
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QUICK LINKS
TECO Website
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SBA Website Lives On In 2008, TECO acquired the assets of the Structural Board Association, including the SBA website with its wealth of information about OSB. TECO will continue to maintain the OSBGuide.com website, so please use this or TECO's own website to find useful information about the application and performance of OSB.
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Interested in reviewing a previous 'Under The Roof' eNewsletter but didn't save it in your email folder?
Now you can. Follow the Archive link on our website to see past 'Under the Roof' issues.
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"You can judge your age by the amount of pain you feel when you come in contact with a new idea."
- Pearl S. Buck -
Author, winner of Pulitzer Prize (1932) and Nobel Prize for Literature (1938)
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TECO Teams Up With Major League Baseball
When Major League Baseball (MLB) was looking for experts to work on a project to reduce the frequency of broken baseball bats during the 2008 season, they found two organizations in Madison (Wisconsin) to join their team. TECO and the USDA Forest Products Laboratory joined Dr. Carl Morris, a Professor of Statistics at Harvard and Dr. James Sherwood, a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at UMass-Lowell and Director of the UMass-Lowell Baseball Research Center on the team of experts that analyzed 2,232 bats broken during MLB games between July 2 and September 7. Those bats were shipped to TECO's office in Wisconsin, where TECO and FPL staff collected a wealth of data about the broken bats.
At first glance, working on a project with baseball bats might seem unusual for a certification and testing agency like TECO. Yet when you consider that MLB was looking for a company with knowledge and expertise in wood science, quality system development in wood manufacturing plants, and how wood products perform under load, TECO was a natural choice.
In a press conference during the MLB winter meetings in December, nine recommendations of the expert team were adopted into the MLB bat supplier regulations. TECO is now working with MLB, the MLB Players Association, and the 29 baseball bat manufacturers that are approved by MLB, to implement the new regulations. To learn more about the project, read the full MLB press release.
For additional information about TECO's work with MLB, contact Scott Drake at TECO's corporate office at (608) 837-2790 or by email at scott.drake@tecotested.com.
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TECO Expands CARB Formaldehyde Program As a recognized Third-Party Certifier by the California Air Resources Board (CARB), TECO has certified several composite wood panel mills and is in the process of certifying others. Phase I formaldehyde emission requirements of the CARB Airborne Toxic Control Measure went into effect on January 1, 2009. The rule regulates emission from raw panels (hardwood plywood, particleboard, and MDF) sold directly into California or used to make goods that are sold in California, but also affects importers, fabricators, distributors and retailers.
Visit TECO's website to see a list of certified mills.
For manufacturers in Russia and Italy, we have partnered with two organizations to provide a comprehensive and cost effective CARB certification program. MPA-Bremen is a licensed institute for testing, inspection, and certification of building materials (including wood-based panels) in accordance with European and German standards, based in Bremen, Germany. LAPI is a certification and testing agency near Florence, Italy, that has auditing and testing capabilities that meet CARB standards. Both of these organizations are well-known and respected within their respective regions, and together with TECO offer a high level of service and quality for manufacturers that require CARB certification. Contact Steve Verhey, PhD, TECO's Technical Manager, at (608) 837-2790 or email at steve.verhey@tecotested.com if you have questions about the CARB regulations or how TECO can help your company meet the CARB requirements.
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Green Building Specialist
Joins TECO 
With national and global emphasis toward 'green' products and processes, and toward building sustainable, environmentally responsible structures, TECO has hired Jed Hannemann as its Green Building Specialist. Jed will be leading TECO's efforts in understanding how the variety of green building standards, such as NAHB's National Green Building Standard, Green Globes, LEED for Homes, and others, impact our certification clients. He will soon be certified as a Verifier for the NAHB Green Building Standard and also the Wisconsin Green Built Home program.
To learn more about 'green' issues and green building standards, visit the Green Building page on TECO's website, or contact Jed at TECO's corporate office at (608) 837-2790 or by email at jed.hannemann@tecotested.com.
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TECO Staff Join PS 1 and PS 2 Committees
Two separate committees have been formed for the review and revision of the two primary standards for structural panels in North America. The PS 1 Standing Committee, which includes Dick Bower and Mike Russell of TECO, will convene on February 3 in Las Vegas to discuss several issues related to the PS 1-07 Structural Plywood standard. These include the California Weights & Measures vs. PS 1 panel thickness requirements, possible formaldehyde policy statement or formaldehyde testing requirement for PS 1, and some language to identify plywood as a "green" product.
Greg Dupuis will represent TECO on the PS 2 (Performance Standard for Wood-Based Structural-Use Panels) Standing Committee that has just been formed, although the date/place of the first meeting has not been set. Many of the same issues being addressed by the PS 1 Standing Committee will be considered by the PS 2 Standing Committee. For more information about these particular meetings or the issues that will be discussed at each, please contact:
For OSB and PS 2
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TECO Supplies NDS Sets to OSU
TECO supplied sets of the National Design  Specification, published and maintained by AF&PA's American Wood Council, to 40 students in Dr. Rakesh Gupta's Wood Engineering class at Oregon State University this spring. Dr. Gupta: "This course is one of the most popular elective courses in Civil Engineering and TECO's continued support shows their commitment to the success of this course. Since about 90% of all structures in the US are wood-frame structures, it is critical that all graduating civil engineers have some exposure to wood engineering. TECO's generous support will help in ensuring well-qualified civil engineers with that exposure."
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