“In 2011, I bought my first Hundegger machine at an auction – a P10,” remembers Peter Gerstenmayer, managing director of PG Holzbau Service from Karlstetten. At the time, this used joinery machine was in use solely for his own carpentry business. “My father and I always dreamed about having a Hundegger K2, so I built a booth over the P10 and painted it blue so that we had our own K2,” says Gerstenmayer with a smile. For four years, the carpenter still worked with the Hundegger P10, but repeatedly reached the machine’s limits due to its age.
Contract joining grew with the cutting machine
In 2015, Gerstenmayer decided to invest in a new joinery machine. Of course, it had to be a Hundegger machine again. At the time, he opted for a Speed-Cut SC3. “It was absolutely sufficient for our own needs in the carpentry shop and made work a lot easier.” News of his investment spread among his fellow carpenters and more and more of them approached him for contract joining. Gerstenmayer also actively promoted his new machine and invited many interested people from the area to a presentation.
Additional joinery machine
Over time, demand for and requirements in joining kept increasing. For this reason, Gerstenmayer founded PG Holzbau Service in 2019, a company which focuses entirely on contract joining. At the same time, there was an addition to Gerstenmayer’s “Hundegger family”. Since November 2019, a fully-automatic Robot-Drive stands opposite of the Speed-Cut SC3. “Actually, we wanted to sell the Speed-Cut and work only with the Robot-Drive,” tells us Gerstenmayer. “However, we have a very high performance and a maximum of flexibility with both machines. This is why in the end, we decided to keep the Speed-Cut.” Arno Gaggl, Hundegger representative for Austria, explains: “In the slightly adapted production hall, we were able to position the machines in such a way so as to create a material flow. This Robot-Drive is thus a mirrored left-hand version.” This comes with another advantage for Gerstenmayer: When utilization is lower, one employee can operate both machines.
When the new machine was purchased, Gerstenmayer got into a conversation with Hans-Christian Riegler, managing director of Holzhandel Wallner of St. Pölten. “We have been supplying timber construction companies with construction products, such as cross-laminated timber, for a long time. However, we do not have the necessary expertise for the joining of CLT,” tells us Rieger. This is how a partnership was formed between the two companies: Wallner sells glulam or CLT to carpentry businesses and is able to offer high-quality joining even of small-format CLT with widths of up to 1.25 meters thanks to PG Holzbau Service.
The right machine for every purpose
The cutting machine Speed-Cut SC3 guarantees high performance – as its name suggests. The machine is used for cross-sections of up to 450 x 200 mm and lengths of up to 13 meters. Gerstenmayer mainly works solid structural timber with this system. When joining is a bit more complex or elements are bigger, the pieces are worked with the Robot-Drive, which is designed for cross-sections of 1300 mm in width, 300 mm in thickness and an infeed length of 30 meters. Since last year, the new Hundegger joinery machine stands exactly opposite of it. “Gerstenmayer opted for a fully equipped Robot-Drive,” says Gaggl during the tour. Apart from a six-axis robot unit, the machine is equipped with a saw, slot and marking unit, a magazine with 16 tools as well as two additional magazines which can hold one additional large tool and an exchangeable chainsaw. In total, the Robot-Drive has 22 tool spaces. The wood waste is automatically disposed of via a conveyor belt. Additionally, there is an extraction system which removes fine dust around the Robot-Drive. According to the managing director, this is “an absolute must when both machines are being used”. In order to ensure precise measuring, both machines are equipped with Hundegger’s patented measuring system HMC (Hundegger-Motion-Control). Gerstenmayer can enter the joining data from the Sema joining program in the Robot-Drive’s Cambium software as well as in slightly simpler software of the SC3.
Gerstenmayer is convinced that he made the right choice when opting for Hundegger machines. “We attach great importance to an open and transparent collaboration with our colleagues from the carpentry business.” Gerstenmayer explains the success of this concept: “Many colleagues use our price list as reference for their own calculations. Companies, which have a Hundegger machine themselves but cannot work very broad construction elements, also come to us.” Gerstenmayer leaves it up to every customer to decide how much added value they are able or willing to create themselves and also makes his hall available for prefabrication.
