Dreihans… Who is that and how did you come by that name? Managing director and master carpenter Markus Obermüller and his colleagues often had to answer these questions over the past few months – also during the Holzkurier’s visit. Dreihans was established at the beginning of 2023 and is a merger of the Mühlviertel-based construction companies Hehenberger Bau, Kumpfmüller Bau and Brüder Resch.
“The idea was to join forces by combining our strong suits, i.e. the flexibility of a small construction company with the power of a large one,” Obermüller explains. The aim was to rethink construction, to do research, to think in terms of products and thus to break new ground, without forgetting their roots as traditional regional construction companies. The name Dreihans is borrowed from the Mühlviertel dialect and means something like: “There are three.”
With around 530 employees, 120 of whom work in timber construction, the company carries out construction projects from Vienna to Munich.
Successful entry to the sector
In Ulrichsberg, at a former site of Brüder Resch, Dreihans concentrates some of its timber construction expertise. Another production site is located in Pfarrkirchen. There, the focus is on post-and-beam constructions, façades and classic timber construction work. Nearly 20 years ago, senior manager Gerhard Resch had the vision of producing up to 1,000 prefabricated houses, so-called Böhmerwaldhäuser. Even though this idea never became reality on this scale, it was a sustainable entry to the timber construction sector, which resulted in a division that today employs 120 people.
In 2007, Resch built a timber construction center with 5,500 m² of hall space in Ulrichsberg, which was expanded just two years later. At that time, the company also started working with Hundegger. “We bought a K3i that we used for the cutting and joining of everything – from an observation tower to timber frame construction elements,” timber construction technician Benjamin Gretsch recalls, who is responsible for the Hundegger machines at Dreihans, and adds: “When we started building industrial and commercial buildings made of wood, we quickly realized the potential of this building material and took the necessary steps.” Today, the company not only does classic carpentry work and builds Böhmerwald houses. Dreihans also constructs engineered wood buildings as well as multi-story commercial and non-residential buildings as hybrid buildings, which Obermüller describes as the central activity. When manufacturing elements, Dreihans attaches great importance on the highest possible degree of prefabrication.
High-performance industrial machine
In 2018, the K3i had reached the end of its lifespan, and Resch replaced the joinery machine with a K2-Industry 1300 of the latest generation. Equipped with a robot unit, the high-performance machines is extremely versatile and is therefore used by Gretsch for all types of processing: “Even highly complex processing is no problem for the K2-Industry. We can’t imagine life without this machine.”
However, the timber construction technician already knew back then that the next investment in this area was only a matter of time: “Of course, I can also use the K2-Industry to cut a 6/8 cross-section for a roof element but tasks like that keep the machine busy for a long time and are still no challenge for it.”
At around the same time, Kumpfmüller put a Robot-Solo into operation in Pfarrkirchen/DE.
Fast and flexible
Hundegger’s newly developed Speed-Cut 480 cutting machine was the solution to this issue. “Arno recommended the machine to us even though it wasn’t even available on the market yet. The final decision was made when we found out that the SC 480 works with the Cambium software – unlike the previous model,” Gretsch recalls a conversation with Hundegger representative Arno Gaggl. Dreihans can do the work preparation for all three machines using just one software and process orders flexibly on the machines. “Thanks to additional technical features, the Speed-Cut 480 can be used as a full-fledged joinery machine for standard woodworking of components with smaller cross-sections and elements with dimensions of up to 240 by 480 mm,” Gaggl explains. This is possible thanks to a turret mill and a saw unit. The latter can be rotated 360° and tilted 90° and can carry out almost all types of cuts, such as birdsmouth joints, miter cuts or tenons. The turret mill unit can be equipped with up to four tools, making it possible to create nibbed scarf joints, key joints, tenons or dovetail joints.
“In practice, we use the Speed-Cut 480 primarily for simple cuts in element production, for example. The machine carries them out with high precision and in no time. The K2-Industry is there for more complex types of processing. With the two machines, we are ideally positioned to face the challenges of today and tomorrow,” Gretsch emphasizes in conclusion.
