By Aislinn Esterle

The demand for solid wood solutions is on the rise worldwide, as the raw material wood is increasingly seen as the sustainable and versatile building material of the future. Hence, the market for mass timber in construction is set to rise significantly within the coming years.

Three holistic technology partners within the HOMAG Group – System TM, Kallesoe Machinery and WEINMANN – have come together to provide their customers with tailor made, interlacing solutions, to meet the growing demand in timber house construction. Their products are covering the entire process chain in solid wood processing with complete production lines.

CES business unit set to meet growing demand for wooden buildings

The CES (Construction Elements Solutions) business unit was formed in response to the market trend in the field of sustainable building and is set up to pursue growth opportunities in the flourishing mass timber and timber construction industry. Even though the products of System TM, Kallesoe and WEINMAN are inherently different, they can be combined and linked, to facilitate state-of-the-art solid wood production and processing technology. Especially System TM and Kallesoe products can be seamlessly integrated to form industry leading solutions for laminated timber production. As a result, we can now introduce ourselves as a system supplier and offer one-shop solutions, covering three process areas within our customers value chain: Timber Processing, Mass Timber, and House Building.

The answer for increasing production capacities

The increasing growth of the timber construction industry is a positive trend, both from an economic and ecological perspective. However, its growth is significantly slowed down due to a lack of production capacity within the industry. The way forward can only be automation and we are convinced that this industry will be able to expand their manufacturing capacities over the coming years, not least due to System TMs automated solutions, which enable them to increase their production capacities much faster and at the same time reduce the number of required operators.

Saving the environment means building with timber

The environmental properties and carbon footprint of timber as a building material are truly remarkable. Due to growing concerns about climate change, there is a rise in demand for building with energy-efficient, sustainable and carbon neutral materials. Timber is the ultimate sustainable building material in the sense that it is a carbon negative, which means additionally to having a low carbon footprint – timber weighs considerably less, making it easier to transport and quicker to build with, saving around 45 tons of CO2 per average house – wood acts as CO2 storage. Because as trees grow, they use CO2 – meaning that as long as the wood exists, the CO2 is stored – making it the ultimate renewable raw material.

Think big, think timber in commercial and industrial construction

In addition, building with timber is synonymous with cost-effectiveness, livability, and construction efficiency. As a result, more and more timber based buildings are starting to pop up around the world, both residential and industrial ones, and it seems only the sky is the limit. Traditionally, timber has been used to construct smaller, one family homes, however, the advancements of technology and engineering have made it possible to build both higher and stronger. The tallest wooden building in the world is currently the Mjosa Tower with 84.5 meters, located in Brumunddal, Norway, followed by the HoHo Tower in Vienna with 84 meters. The most ambitious project currently in development is the W350 building, located in Tokyo Japan, which is set to become Japan’s – and the worlds – tallest wooden building measuring 350m.

CES: In three steps to building with wood

The CES business unit can provide comprehensive solutions for the whole process chain in building with solid wood. At the beginning stand System TM´s machines, which scan wooden boards – coming directly from the sawmills – for defects, then cut and finger-joint them with high precision and very high speed, making the best possible use of the valuable raw material wood. The result of this are flawless boards, that can then enter the next step on the way to becoming a wooden building.

In the second step, Kallesoe Machinery’s high-frequency presses produce glued laminated timber (GLT) and cross laminated timber (CLT) from the boards that were optimized and finger jointed by System TM’s machines. These highly engineered pieces of structural timber are composed of thin timber boards glued together to make large, strong, and high load bearing beams or flat panels. They are resilient, fire-resistant, and can be used for both single- and multi-story timber constructions. Thanks to the seamless integration of System TM’s and Kallesoe’s machines, we are able to offer high quality base products for timber house building.

In the final step to building with wood, WEINMANN enters the process chain. They handle beam processing, framework production and panel processing and can offer the entire range of machine technology for timber house building, be it carpentry companies, module manufacturers or the prefabricated house industry. Prefabricated elements for individual construction projects are produced on the lines and then assembled accordingly on the construction site.

If you are looking for a complete solution in timber house construction – from timber processing to the finished building – then the HOMAG CES business unit companies System TM, Kallesoe and WEINMANN can develop the best possible, complete solution with you.

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