Binderholz Announces New Solid Wood Panel Plant in St. Georgen Will Begin Production in Late 2022

In early August 2021, construction on binderholz solid wood panel plant II began in St. Georgen bei Salzburg / Austria, marking the development of the site into the most modern and powerful solid wood panel plant in the world. This investment comprises a fully automated production plant under the aspect of economically meeting the highest ecological demands. The production hall with an area of 180 x 40 m and a height of 20 m will be home to a two-storey production facility as well as the fully automated two-row high-bay warehouse made of solid wood.

The first floor will be comprised of a hybrid structure made of reinforced concrete and binderholz CLT BBS, while the upper floor as well as the high-bay warehouse will be solid wood constructions. Compared to the previous production processes in Plant I, Plant II will boast many future production innovations. The entire production logistics of the high-bay warehouse, for instance, will be controlled using two storage and retrieval machines. The new plant’s concept attaches high importance to resource efficiency and optimised energy input. Special focus was put on the production of the cover and centre lamellas.

The high-bay warehouse’s total of 60 towers, totalling 27 metres in height, consist of CLT BBS XL walls, into which glulam beams are hooked. The glulam beams are partially screw-press-bonded with the CLT BBS XL panels to be able to establish the tower’s necessary stiffness. A total of 2,300 m2 of CLT BBS and 1,300 m3 of glulam were used for the high-bay warehouse.
In order to keep the assembly time on site as short as possible, it was decided to prefabricate the walls and the stiffening plates in Jenbach in a ready-to-assemble fashion.

Production at the new Plant II is scheduled to begin in late 2022. This will result in additional capacities for 3-ply solid wood panels in the format 5000 x 1250 x 12 – 60 mm for the European market that will be able to close the supply gap in Europe. Additionally, we will intensify production of profiled 3-ply solid wood panels to become even more efficient and extend the product range for our international customers.

Quality grading the cover lamellas will be taken care of by a Woodeye Scanner with a feed rate of 400 m/min. Another feature that differs from the previous production process demands particular attention: The production procedures for cover and centre layers were updated to meet the latest state of technology. On the one hand, these new processes were intended to improve product quality as well as resource utilisation. Plant II will furthermore relieve the bottleneck systems at Plant I, creating further synergies. Particular focus was put on panel finishing and quality assurance where panels with 1250 mm and 2050 mm in width can be finished and packed.

Source: Binderholz GmbH