Table of Contents
Pacific Lumber Inspection Bureau has expanded its online grader training offerings with the launch of STUDS, a stand-alone course designed to help prospective graders, as well as sales and management personnel, learn to grade STUDS according to the National Grading Rule for Dimension Lumber (NGR).
PLIB’s six-unit STUDS course opens with an in-depth overview of the NGR and the grade rules that differentiate STUDS from the other NGR grade classifications (Structural Light Framing, Light Framing, and Structural Joists & Planks).
Units 1-4 describe in detail the most common characteristics used to define the STUD grade. Hundreds of close-up photographs and three-dimensional images captured from in-mill scanners provide an ultra-realistic learning environment. A variety of learning activities teach users to recognize and accurately measure and assess each grade-defining characteristic. Progressively more difficult grading practice exercises are sprinkled throughout.
After an overview of manufacturing standards and other less common characteristics, a review unit utilizes 3D imagery and videos shot at PLIB member mill grading stations to provide eight realistic grading practice activities.
The course concludes with a three-part exam consisting of written questions as well as grading accuracy checks involving both 3D images and real-time grading station videos. Learners who successfully complete the course and pass all three exams receive a certificate of completion indicating their readiness for in-mill training.
STUDS is the second grader training course offered at education.plib.org, PLIB’s online Learning Management System. Foundations of Lumber Grading, an introduction to the basics of lumber grading, was released earlier this year and is a prerequisite to the three NGR Grade courses to be offered, including STUDS. The Foundations course provides knowledge that is required for successful completion of ensuing courses, including in-depth training on all the features and characteristics that impact lumber grades.
“Before anyone can learn to grade lumber they must have a clear understanding of how and why lumber grading came to be, and they must be able to identify, measure and evaluate the characteristics that impact lumber grades,” said PLIB executive VP Erik Wilson.
PLIB’s four-course NGR grading curriculum will be rounded out later this year with release of two additional courses: Light Framing and Structural Light Framing and Joists & Planks. Course registration fees include personal copies of necessary course materials such as PLIB’s Grading Rule Book(s) and PLIB’s new STUD/Light Framing Dry Erase Training Wrap.
“Our courses offer the most comprehensive online grader training anywhere,” Wilson said. “Our extensive use of photos and video of real-life lumber and grading provides the most realistic learning environment possible in an online setting.”
Derived from the in-person training PLIB has provided its members for decades, PLIB’s online training courses accommodate a wide range of learning styles with a variety of different content delivery methods, including instructional videos, hundreds of photos depicting characteristics found in real lumber, and interactive three-dimensional models derived from actual in-mill scanner data.
Once complete, the courses comprising PLIB’s NGR grading curriculum will be available individually or as bundles. To learn more about PLIB’s education and training offerings, visit plib.org/lumber-gradingmarking/education-and-training/. To enroll in a course visit education.plib.org/all-courses.
The Pacific Lumber inspection Bureau (PLIB) is a private, non-profit 501(c)6 member-based quality control inspection agency. Organized in 1903, PLIB provides lumber grading and grade stamping services as well as certifications for heat-treated (HT) lumber, ISPM 15 wood packaging, Glulam, Mass Timber panel products, Wood Trusses, CE Marking, and WUI registration services, to over 450 manufacturers of structural and non-structural softwood products in Europe and North America.
Headquartered in Federal Way, Wa., with a Canadian division based in Vancouver, BC and field offices in Washington, Oregon, California, Florida, British Columbia, Latvia, the Netherlands, and Germany, PLIB is accredited in North America by the American Lumber Standard Committee (ALSC), the Canadian Lumber Standard Accreditation Board (CLSAB), and the International Accreditation Service (IAS). The agency operates across the U.S. and in Western Canada and Continental Europe.
In 2019, PLIB merged operations with West Coast Lumber Inspection Bureau (WCLIB) and the American Institute of Timber Construction (AITC), extending PLIB membership to all former WCLIB and AITC members, while also retaining all WCLIB and AITC trademarks and programs.
