Post and beam on a large scale

The timber construction company in Obergrafendorf, Lower Austria – a member of the Rubner Group – has already made its mark in timber engineering. With spectacular projects such as the mighty observation tower on the Pyramidenkogel mountain near Klagenfurt/AT, the "Ippocrate" in Milan/IT, or the natural stones center in Tulln/AT which was awarded with the Lower Austrian Timber Construction Prize, the company has earned a good reputation. Less well known is the fact that the company is also the post and beam specialist within the Rubner Group.

Logical supplement

It had been quite obvious to everyone, says managing director Bernhard Egert: "Our first major projects in facade construction – a secondary school for higher education in Wiener Neustadt/AT and a retirement home in Hallein/AT – went quite well. As a timber engineering company we had good technical conditions." The decision for major investments over the last two years was a natural result of the rapid growth in the new division. "The first projects we more or less carved by hand", says Egert with a smile. "Our planning and sales office in Augsburg/DE, which we founded last year, benefitted from these references enormously when it came to acquiring new orders for facade construction. It was clear, we had to invest in this manufacturing sector – and we have consistently pursued just that since then." Unlike many facade engineering companies from the metal side who have little experience with wood and glass facades, Rubner being a traditional timber company is predestined for this challenge. "We know how to handle wood, and thus the post-beam facade construction is a logical supplement to timber engineering." His success proves him right: "Our facade construction division was able to achieve a total contract value in the tens of millions in just ten months."

Busy joining unit

This success was the result of hard, consistent work as the team leader of the project business, Christian Weinzettl, knows from personal experience: "Of course, every wood construction company has the know-how to produce posts and beams. But if the whole thing is to be economically viable on a large scale, you've got to do your homework in order to be successful."
In real terms, this implied pulling up a seperate production line: "Otherwise we would have compromised the manufacturing process of our well running timber engineering", emphasizes Weinzettl. "We do take advantage of the existing facilities for glue-laminated timber construction, though. But considering the rate at which we execute our post-beam orders now, we could virtually utilize the capacity of our Hundegger joinery machine out in the hall twice over. So the first thing Rubner did was to install another joining unit." Needless to say it was again Hundegger, Hawangen/DE, who was asked to optimize its new K2i for this purpose. It is capable of processing profile cross-sections of 20 x 50 mm to 300 x 450 mm without retooling.

A major difference to the traditional timber construction are the wood qualities now commonly used in post and beam construction, says Weinzettl: "One must not forget that these are all visible surfaces, which the customer is looking at. Meanwhile we are talking about a surface quality up to carpenter's working standards. And this is where we have our big asset: timber drying, glueing the beams, planing – we do everything in-house and can thus keep the quality under our own control, even for large quantities. In our segment press we can glue several lots at the same time." The high standard of surface quality that Weinzettl referred to is reflected in elaborate cutouts and fillings. The edges are meticulously bevelled, just like a carpenter would do it. The surface coating is up to the quality level of a window manufacture. As for glazing, Rubner has relied on products by Raico, Pfaffenhausen/DE, for the last two years. The finished items are then carefully packed into boxes – in the sequence as required during assembly: "This extra effort is worth it in order to protect our very clean surfaces at the construction site", Weinzettl comments succinctly.

High-profile facade builder

Now the company is to be counted among Austria's prime manufacturers of wood and glass facades, Bernhard Egert points out: "Above all, the fact that we do our own glueing is a real asset of ours. Coming from glulam construction, we know how to process large quantities of wood. And also processing them rather swiftly is something we have learned how to do. For large post and beam construction volumes you need a cost-effective production. And we can offer just that", says Egert as he wraps things up.