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A signi­fi­cant trans­for­ma­ti­on is taking place in bridge con­s­truc­tion: thanks to modern block gluing of lami­na­ted tim­ber, struc­tu­ral com­pon­ents with pre­vious­ly unat­tainable cross-sec­tions and lengths can now be manu­fac­tu­red. Com­bi­ned with pre­cise 5‑axis CNC machi­ning, this enables the crea­ti­on of com­plex bridge com­pon­ents with spans of over 45 meters and more.

Seri­al tim­ber con­s­truc­tion is syn­ony­mous with speed, pre­cis­i­on, and repea­ta­bi­li­ty. Howe­ver, com­pa­nies must ask them­sel­ves how well their pro­duc­tion pro­ces­ses are pre­pared for this. And whe­ther they can relia­bly manu­fac­tu­re lar­ge-for­mat com­pon­ents to a con­sis­tent stan­dard of qua­li­ty – even as pro­duc­tion volu­mes increase.

Can entre­pre­neur­ship and the cou­ra­ge to repea­ted­ly achie­ve extra­or­di­na­ry things be pas­sed on to suc­ces­sors? The ans­wer is yes: Treppenbau.ch, a com­pa­ny based in Gan­ter­schwil, Switz­er­land, shows how inno­va­ti­ve spi­rit can be seam­less­ly car­ri­ed on.

Modern tim­ber con­s­truc­tion has long been a pio­neer in pre­fa­bri­ca­ti­on, demons­t­ra­ting how num­e­rous work steps can be trans­fer­red from the con­s­truc­tion site to the fac­to­ry flo­or. This saves time during assem­bly and offers advan­ta­ges in terms of qua­li­ty and pre­cis­i­on. It requi­res digi­tal plan­ning and inno­va­ti­ve plant technology …

Anyo­ne can nest smooth panels. But gui­ding all panels, both suc­tionable and non-suc­tionable, ful­ly auto­ma­ti­cal­ly from sto­rage to stack­ing using a CNC sys­tem cle­ar­ly high­lights the tech­no­lo­gi­cal engi­nee­ring exper­ti­se. At the Ter­hal­le Group, all panels in tim­ber con­s­truc­tion pass through the modern VISION-III‑U.

Machi­nes are chan­ging the way peo­p­le think and act. A bold theo­ry? Defi­ni­te­ly not, says plant mana­ger André Lei­pold, becau­se the ECO-8126‑A CNC sys­tem mark­ed the start of a who­le new era in pro­duc­tion at Brü­ning­hoff in Hei­den, North Rhi­ne-West­pha­lia: the thin­king in terms of pro­ces­ses and machi­ning strategies.

What if CNC manu­fac­tu­ring could be reinven­ted? If 3D prin­ting and con­ven­tio­nal machi­ning were no lon­ger thought of sepa­ra­te­ly, but intel­li­gent­ly com­bi­ned? Rei­chen­ba­cher is plan­ning to do just that: Under the mot­to ‘CNC ret­hought’, the com­pa­ny is pre­pa­ring to mer­ge addi­ti­ve and sub­trac­ti­ve processes.

Aber­le Kunst­stoff­ver­ar­bei­tung GmbH, based in the Black Forest, Ger­ma­ny, spe­cia­li­zes in pro­to­ty­pes, one-offs and small series made from a varie­ty of pla­s­tics. For the past two years, they have been using the high-pre­cis­i­on, fle­xi­ble VISION-I‑H 5‑axis CNC machi­ning cen­ter from Rei­chen­ba­cher Hamuel.

Making sophisti­ca­ted con­cre­te form­work from wood is often an art. What was once con­side­red impos­si­ble or dif­fi­cult, such as crea­ting futu­ristic cur­ves on lar­ge bal­co­nies, has beco­me rou­ti­ne for experts thanks to modern CNC tech­no­lo­gy. Some­ti­mes it only takes a few days from con­cept to rea­li­sa­ti­on, and a cus­to­mi­sed con­cre­te stair­ca­se, for exam­p­le, is rea­dy for delivery.

In the idyl­lic Swe­dish coun­try­si­de, Setra has estab­lished its­elf as one of the country’s lar­gest tim­ber indus­try com­pa­nies. With a clear focus on sus­taina­bi­li­ty, only wood from respon­si­bly mana­ged forests in Swe­den, some of the best soft­wood are­as in the world, is used. Seven saw­mills and a modern pro­ces­sing unit trans­form the­se raw mate­ri­als into cli­ma­te-fri­end­ly pro­ducts such as glu­lam, pla­ned t