The Schober Group has been dedicated to sustainable building and living for decades. The idea of managing partner Manuel Schober is to have all trades under one roof. With investments in automation, to be precise in an Essetre TechnoFast joinery machine and an Essetre MultiWall XS CNC machine with a portal frame for the production of elements and solid wood processing, the production capacity for prefabricated wall, roof, ceiling and other timber construction elements was increased. Implementing automated production for the joining and assembly of elements in a confined space was a challenging task. Despite space problems, the machines had to be integrated into the existing hall layout. For this purpose, Schober also contacted various manufacturers and visited his colleagues to take a look at their machines.
Optimal use of space
Beforehand, the company also took some time to define the production processes in order to make the best possible use of the available space. Precisely for this reason, Schober opted for an Essetre TechnoFast machine: It saves space in width because the beams are in a vertical position during processing. For the timber construction entrepreneur, it was also important to be able to expand the Essetre machine with its portal frame if necessary. For example, it is possible to add a second assembly table, a robot for the handling of panels or a machine for the application of cellulose insulation on timber construction elements. For Essetre, all of this poses no challenge.
The heart of the production hall: The production line from Italian machine manufacturer Essetre makes the production of wooden elements even faster and easier © Schober Holzbau/Essetre
“With the new plant, we were able to increase our capacity and improve our production quality despite the limited space. In addition, the new production line gives us a significant increase in precision, which is one of the main reasons why we invest in automation. This creates trust in our products and their quality among builders and architects,” Schober says.
€1.2 million invested
Thanks to the high degree of prefabrication of the wall and roof elements in timber frame construction, which includes the installation of windows as well as the laying of electrical wiring and installations, water pipes and wastewater drains, significantly less time is spent on the construction site. This makes it possible to work more independently of the weather. Schober invested around €1.2 million in the adaptation of the existing joinery hall, the installation of extraction systems, air systems and production areas as well as in the purchase of the Essetre joinery and portal machines. The company also made an investment in its vehicle fleet and purchased trucks with swap body systems for the pre-loading of the prefabricated elements.
Successful adaptation: Given the confined space inside the hall, Schober opted for an Essetre TechnoFast machine, which is space-saving in width because the beams are in a vertical position during processing. It can also be expanded to include many other features © Schober Holzbau/Essetre
“Our planner and machine data engineer’s own project was carried out as a test house. When producing the elements, we were able to optimize the machine settings in a very short time. Currently, we are building a micro-house village which consists of twelve single-family houses with housing spaces ranging from 30 to 90 m². “By investing in Essetre machinery, we have invested in the future of automation in prefabricated construction,” Schober concludes.
