Twisted laminates

·	*Principle* This technique was developed to build quickly a rectangular or moulded wreathed handrail. Like the twisted solids technique we use a CAD program to break the helical curve up into elliptical parts and calculate the twist angles. The elliptical form is used to cut laminates from solid wood or plywood that are then glued up using a special twist jig. The resulting wreath is rectangular, if necessary mouldings can be applied to the faces.
·	*Advantages* This technique gives precise control on the position of the helical shape. The handrail can be built quickly with traditional woodworking tools. Mouldings can be machined up simply on a spindle moulder. Tight radius curves can be built with no problem. Handrails have the same aspect as solid wood rails.
·	*Technical Limits* This technique builds a wreath with rectangular section normal to the slope and is therefore ill adapted to handrails that are exceptionally heigh, for rectangular handrails that are heigh we use cross fibre or traditional laminate technology.
·	*Applications* Restangular or moulded handrails for stairs in, wood, metal, concrete or stone.