APA Puts the Engineered into Engineered Wood Products

For over seventy years, APA-The Engineered Wood Association has focused on helping the industry create structural wood products of exceptional strength, versatility and reliability. Combining the research efforts of scientists at APA’s 37,000 square-foot research center with the knowledge gained from decades of field work, and cooperation with our member manufacturers, APA promotes new solutions and improved processes that benefit the entire industry.

What’s in a Trademark?

Quality assurance and reliable performance -- that’s what! The APA and APA EWS trademarks are the consumer’s assurance that products which bear them have met specific manufacturing and product performance guidelines that are carefully delineated in specification guides available to architects, builders and engineers. Only products manufactured by APA and APA EWS members committed to APA's rigorous program of quality inspection and testing may bear the respective trademarks of quality and performance assurance.

The Voice of an Industry

APA is a nonprofit trade association that has grown and evolved with the engineered wood industry. APA was founded in 1933 as the Douglas Fir Plywood Association, and was later recognized as the American Plywood Association. In 1994, APA changed its name to APA – The Engineered Wood Association to better reflect the range of products manufactured by APA members and the international scope of the Association.

APA members are comprised of well-known industry leaders, whose mills produce the majority of the structural wood panel products manufactured in North America, plus a host of new products that include glued laminated timber (glulam), composite panels, wood I-joists, and laminated veneer lumber. APA also works in close cooperation with its related corporation, Engineered Wood Systems (EWS). EWS members produce the majority of the glued laminated timber (glulam) and the majority of the wood I-joists manufactured in North America.

The Leading Resource for Information About Engineered Wood Products

With over 400 publications, extensive research and technical reports, comprehensive market studies and more, APA has the information you need about engineered wood products. APA field representatives in most major U.S. and Canadian cities, plus several European and Pacific Rim cities, are available to help answer questions involving APA and EWS trademarked products.