31st Annual meeting of ISO/TC165 (Timber Structures) 

The 31st Annual meeting of ISO/TC165 was held from 5 to 8 September 2017 in Vienna, Austria. More than 40 timber or bamboo experts attended the meeting from Austria, Canada, Colombia, China, Egypt, Finland, Germany, Japan, Malaysia, Netherland, Korea, UK, USA as well as representatives from liaison organizations like INBAR (International Organization for Bamboo and Rattan) and SBS (Small Business Standards).

INBAR is the convener of WG12 which is responsible for revising two existing standards and developing one new standard. As most experts for the WG12 are from developing countries and lack of funds deters attending in person, ISO began supporting additional methods from 2017 to encourage more experts to attend the WG12 meetings:

• Virtual meeting: ISO provides free WebEx link for participants who have been nominated as experts of WG12 who cannot attend the meeting in person.
• Sponsorship Programme: ISO began a sponsorship programme especially for the revision work of ISO22156 “Bamboo structures – structural design” from 2017 to 2020. All the P-countries of ISO/TC165 who are developing countries can apply for this sponsorship which supports or funds the nominated experts to attend the annual meeting of ISO/TC165.

OUTCOMES

For the WG12 meeting of this year, ISO TC165 had the following resolutions:

• Requests to revise DIS22157-1 with the new title DIS22157 “Bamboo structures – Determination of physical and mechanical properties of bamboo culms – Test methods” based on the discussions at the WG12 meeting and submit it for second DIS ballot.
• Requests to revise DIS19624 “Bamboo structures –Structural grading of bamboo culms – Basic principles and procedures” based on the editorial changes agreed at the WG12 meeting and submit it for publication by November 2017.
• Requests to revise WD22156 with the new title “Bamboo structures – structural design” based on the discussions at the WG12 meeting and submit it for CD ballot.
• Request to the new co-project leaders to prepare a NWIP and WD for a new Standard on “Bamboo structures – Engineered bamboo products – Test methods for mechanical properties” for the ballot.
• Confirmation of liaison by ISO TC 165 of category A with INBAR. 
• Requests for withdrawal of ISO22157-2 “Bamboo structures – Determination of physical and mechanical properties of bamboo culms – Part 2: Laboratory manual”.
• A decision by ISO TC165 to hold the 32nd meeting of ISO TC 165 in Istanbul, Turkey in September 2018.

For all the resolutions above, INBAR would like to highlight the initiative standardization work of engineered bamboo. Two key experts of INBAR Construction Task Force (TFC), Arjan van der Vegte from the Netherlands and Bhavna Sharma from the UK have been nominated as the co-project leaders and will work with other experts from China, USA and Colombia in the TFC to start the standardization work of new standard on “Bamboo structures – Engineered bamboo products – Test methods for mechanical properties”. 

For further information, please contact –  

Liu Kewei, Coordinator of Global Bamboo Construction Programme and Convener of WG12 of ISO/TC165: kwliu@inbar.int