Quality in all areas

It didn’t take long for Theurl Austrian Premium Timber to make a name for itself in the cross-laminated timber sector. Just a few months after the new CLT production plant went into operation in Steinfeld, CLT sales manager Christian Wolsegger tells us about successful projects and numerous new customers. In addition to the good market situation, it was mostly a remarkable leap of faith which was decisive for this successful market entry with the product “CLTPLUS”. “Existing customers from the glulam segment, but also many new customers trusted us right from the beginning and they were not disappointed,” says Wolsegger.

As with all products, Theurl offers high product quality and an extensive range of services also when it comes to CLT.

The entire production line was designed based on this principle. Just like the glulam plant, the CLT production is also designed for complete order picking and batch size 1. The elements are available in “industrial quality”, “industrial plus quality” and “visible quality”. In addition to complete joining, Theurl also offers longitudinally or transversely sanded surfaces.

More than 100 years of experience

This high flexibility and product quality are possible thanks to the careful selection of the machine suppliers. Theurl chose German mechanical engineering specialist Bürkle of Freudenstadt as press supplier. The company has been developing and building presses for wood processing companies for 100 years. 13 years ago, Bürkle was one of the very first companies to enter the cross-laminated timber sector with a machine for a well-known CLT producer. “We are used to delivering high-precision solutions to the furniture sector, so we also design our CLT presses for the production of high-quality products,” emphasizes sales manager Stephan Deitermann.

“We looked at numerous presses but quickly opted for a solution by Bürkle,” recalls project manager Gerald Theurl. In addition to the technical parameters, he was particularly impressed by Bürkle’s approach: “They asked the right questions from the start, which was challenging for us, but quickly brought us in the right direction and ultimately to the perfect press for us.” The press was delivered in March 2020 and started up the following summer. “Bürkle did a great job from start to finish and met all the deadlines exactly to the day,” sums up Theurl.

Fast laying station

The press delivered by Bürkle is designed for up to 3.5 meter wide, 16 meter long and 320 mm thick elements. The maximum pressing pressure is 100 N/cm² and the maximum loading weight is 10 tons. Theurl offers its customers lengths of 8 to 16 meters in a 10 cm grid and widths from 225 cm. In order to avoid damage when the press is not fully loaded, Bürkle equipped the press with an incorrect loading protection device which automatically detects empty areas in the press and does not apply any pressure there. In addition to the press, Bürkle also delivered the upstream laying station. A vacuum lifter lifts the single-layer panels, which were previously glued on their narrow sides, onto the laying table – “in record time”, as Deitermann emphasizes. In total, Bürkle needs less than five minutes to load the press and lay a panel with seven layers and six gluing cycles.

At the beginning of the year, Theurl started to work in a three-shift operation which was another important step towards the annual target output of 100,000 m³.

Short distances

The Kindernest in Steinfeld is a day care center and one of Theurl Austrian Premium Timber’s first references for “CLTPLUS”. The building is a timber frame and solid wood construction. Around 80 m³ of CLT were used for the building. The wall elements consist of three-layer panels with thicknesses of 100 and 120 mm. The 200 mm-thick ceiling elements have seven layers.

Theurl’s office building is even closer to the CLT production plant in Steinfeld. Here, the company created a “living showroom” in wood. The timber frame construction essentially consists of two components: Glulam pillars, produced at the headquarters in Assling, ensure a safe vertical transfer of loads. Flat elements in the form of walls and ceilings made from the company’s own CLT bring mass into the building. The company created around 936 m² of office space in order to offer employees workspaces in a pleasant atmosphere and to show potential customers the advantages of modern timber construction.