Winners Schweighofer Prize 2011

MAIN PRIZE

Dieter Siempelkamp

Dieter Siempelkamp and his homonymous company from Germany set one of the most remarkable milestones for the entire wood working industry worldwide. No other engineering company had more influence on the development and progress of especially the building and furniture industry within the past century. Today Siempelkamp is global market leader for press systems with a share of about 53%. The most prominent product of Siempelkamp for the woodworking sector is the continuous press Contiroll®.
Nowadays Dieter Siempelkamp puts special emphasis on the support of young people in research and training. He also initiated the ProWood Foundation, of which most actual project „TeachWood“ aims at motivating children in primary schools to gain manual skills in working with wood.

www.siempelkamp.com

Innovation Prizes

Agepan® THD Static

from left to right:
Knut Kappenberg and Alfred Pfemeter

Dr. Knut Kappenberg and Dr. Alfred Pfemeter, Glunz AG, Germany, developed a highly innovative fibre board, which they say is a “paradigm shift for diffusion permeable wooden buildings”. The fibreboard shows excellent insulating properties, but moreover – which is sensational – it has remarkable strength properties as well.
Agepan® THD Static has a very low density of about 230 g/m³. It is used as an outer insulation, where it is attached to the wooden frames in full height and acts as a stiffening element. The high strength properties with reference to the low density are related to a very specific density profile within the cross-section of the board. Both the development and the implementation in the production process is an outstanding performance.
This product is a major step forward for building with wood as it also helps entering the sector of private house builders. Additionally Agepan® THD Static increases the proportion of wood in wood frame houses, which is crucial for a positive CO2 balance.

www.agepan.de/produkt/gruppe/367--thd_static

TES Energy Façade

from left to right:
Knut E. Larsen, Frank Lattke, Stephan Winter, Pekka Heikkinen

A European team of scientists developed a completely new timber based facade system for refurbishment. About 60% of all buildings in Europe have been built within 1950 und 1980, of course without taking energy efficiency into account. Nowadays those buildings urgently need renovation in terms of thermal insulation and new windows. In order to make the renovation as efficient as possible, TES Energy Façade was developed as a holistic system, which covers all working steps of the reconstruction. At the beginning the whole building will be 3D measured by a laser scanner. Then the new facades made of wooden frames (completed with insulation, windows and claddings) are prefabricated according to the 3D data. Finally the facades are installed on site. The new tailor made „wrapping” is a vital contribution against CO2 emission. It helps saving energy and even stores CO2 in its wooden frame.TES Energy Façade is a novel approach for tackling climate change and offers new opportunities for wood in refurbishment.

www.tesenergyfacade.com

HESS LIMITLESS

from left to right:
Simon Aicher and Mathias Hofmann

The development of Mathias Hofmann (Hess Timber) and Simon Aicher (MPA TU Stuttgart), Germany, is a real revolution! Big buildings for industry or sports need beams with long spans – perfect for glulam! But it is hard to produce and transport beams, which can be more than 40m long. The development of HESS LIMITLESS enables the fabrication of long-span beams comprising short segments which will be glued together on site. The short segments contain a special joint geometry that is needed for the gluing process. Due to the short segments HESS LIMITLESS allows a more flexible and economic transport to the construction site - resulting in lower total costs at verifiable equal technical performance. Using this new system all former restrictions on building with long-span glulam beams are cancelled. It made building with wood literally limitless!!!

www.hess-timber.com

Glulam Turbine Blades

from left to right:
Åge Holmestad and Svein Dag Henriksen

Åge Holmestadt (Moelven) and Svein Dag Henriksen (Hydra Tidal) from Norway show an outstanding innovative performance. In autumn 2010 a completely new floating tidal power plant was introduced and equipped with eight huge glulam turbine blades. Several other materials where tested before glulam was chosen, because only wood could cope with the hard conditions off-shore. On the contrary to other materials, for instance steel, wood is not affected by salt water. In addition there occurs no disturbing buoyancy when glulam beams are water saturated. The positive elastic properties of wood are also beneficial considering the dynamic forces caused by waves. In this case two excellent innovations have merged to an outstanding project. And again wood contributes to the generation of renewable energy!

www.moelven.com
www.hydratidal.com