Since autumn 2020, the sawmill and planing mill Ströbitzer offers its customers contract joining as well. The fully automatic CNC joining is done with this Hundegger K2-Industry © Günther Jauk
The Ströbitzer sawmill and planing mill in St. Valentin is a classic construction timber sawmill. Founded in 1896, Hubert Ströbitzer and his sons Florian and Hubert Junior have been running the company already in the fifth and sixth generation, respectively. In addition to classic construction timber assortments for carpenters and construction companies, the sawmill also supplies processing companies, merchants and end customers with sawn timber products and planed timber. The traditional company is strongly service-oriented. “We always want to serve our customers in the best possible way,” says Hubert Ströbitzer junior, in a nutshell. It was precisely this goal that ultimately led to the decision to enter contract joining.
Extensive range of services
Hundegger representative Arno Gaggl with Florian, Hubert Ströbitzer senior and Hubert Ströbitzer junior (from left) in front of the new joinery machine in St. Valentin © Günther Jauk
In autumn 2020, the company started Abbundtechnik Ströbitzer, its joining line of business, which is a response to the shortage of skilled workers in the booming timber construction sector. “With the contract joining, we don’t want to get in the way of our customers. On the contrary, we want to support them as best as we can. Our joined and varnished elements are transported directly to the construction site, which means that carpenters can focus even more on their core tasks in timber construction,” emphasizes Ströbitzer senior.
In addition to joining with a Hundegger K2-Industry, Ströbitzer also offers planed and/or beveled construction elements. For this purpose, the company invested in an HM3 automatic planer, which was also supplied by Hundegger. Furthermore, Ströbitzer also takes on the work preparation including the technical drawings and execution plans. Depending on the customer’s wishes, the construction elements are also lacquered or varnished, packaged, numbered and wrapped in weatherproof packaging. “We deliver finished timber roof trusses to the construction site on time,” sums up Ströbitzer.
Versatile plant concept
Immediately behind the joinery machine, Ströbitzer installed an HM3 automatic planer with a power of 9.2 kW © Günther Jauk
Ströbitzer ordered a K2-Industry 450 for the processing of timber construction elements of up to 300 mm in height and 450 mm in width. The maximum length is 13 meters. “This means that we can join both the construction timber we produce and the glulam and solid structural timber we buy without any problems,” explains the junior manager. The machine is equipped with a table circular saw, a 15 kW 5-axis unit and various drilling units, and does all the processing fully automatically in one single operation. The processing steps range from simple miter cuts to conical millings, for example for dovetail joints. “Regardless of whether it is a simple roof truss or complex timber engineering – with our Hundegger machine, we can satisfy all customer requirements,” Ströbitzer emphasizes. The Cambium machine software developed by Hundegger takes over all the required data from the respective planning program. Ströbitzer, for example, works with Sema.
Immediately behind the joinery machine, Ströbitzer installed an HM3 automatic planer with a power of 9.2 kW for elements with dimensions of up to 30 by 40 cm. “This way, we achieve a smooth planed surface with beveled edges that we can lacquer or varnish without the need for post-processing,” tells us Ströbitzer.
Strong demand for joining
Fully joined and upon request also planed, beveled and varnished – Ströbitzer delivers construction elements for simple roof trusses but also for complex engineered timber buildings © Günther Jauk
Since the machine was started up six months ago, Ströbitzer has seen a steady growth in demand: “More and more timber construction companies realize the advantages of our service.” In addition to millimetric precision in joining and the ease of work, it is mostly the price that plays a central role: “At first, many people believe that mechanical contract joining comes with high costs. After a more precise calculation, however, they come to find that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages by far.”
With an annual cutting volume of around 13,000 m³ of log wood, Ströbitzer produces not only construction timber but also wood for packaging and numerous other sawn timber products. With the investment in the K2-Industry, however, the company wants to focus more on construction timber in the coming years: “Recently, demand for construction timber has grown significantly again. Through joining, we can now further enhance this high-quality product and thus create more added value for our company.”
