Winners 2015
MAIN PRIZE
Dr. Erich Wiesner
Erich Wiesner from Austria has developed the family-owned company WIEHAG into a leading timber Construction company in Europe. The completed projects present impressive and technically demanding constructions. In addition to his successful entrepreneurial activities, Dr. Wiesner has acted for more than 20 years as a leading representative of woodworking industries both in Austria and on a European level. In all positions his persuasiveness and assertiveness as well as his forward-looking visions have made him to the pioneer of the woodworking industry, especially in building with wood. With help of his excellent network there has been a framework created, which will secure a dynamic and sustainable development for the future.
Further information:
www.wiehag.com/en
INNOVATION PRIZES
Block Gluing
from left to right: Richard Rister, Georg Reis and Erhard Jung
George Reis, Richard Rister and Erhard Jung (Weinig AG, Germany) received the Innovation Prize 2015 for the development of block gluing with butt joints; an innovative production method for core layers and wood panels in general. Defects such as cracks, loose knots and slight wane may remain in the lamella, which result in higher material yield and considerable savings in the production process. Only the rough defects are cut off and then a strand out of the lamellas is formed by butt-jointing the lamellas to each other. The surface of strand is glued and the strand is inserted into the press, lifted in an upright position and pressed into a form of a block. The glued block, a semi-finished product, is dimensionally stable and easy to store for the next processing phase; by using an intelligent way of splitting different kind of end products can be produced. With this new block gluing method, a sign of efficient use of resources is set; any dimension and any length of lamellas can be further processed. The jury appreciated in its decision the fact, that there will be a value addition to all possible sawfallings.
Further information:
www.weinig.com/en/
p-System
Martin Dressler
Martin Dressler (LEUCO AG, Deutschland) was awarded the Innovation Prize 2015 for the development of the high-performing p-system. The p-System tools with extreme shear angles of 70° overcome many of the traditional limitations, which are typical in the woodworking and they integrate the properties considered as incompatible into a one tool concept. The universal application of p-System in different production areas is impressive; both wood-based panels and solid wood can be processed. Another advantage of the p-System is the extremely long edge life without affecting the exceptional cutting quality. Especially the wood-based panels, which are prepared for a jointless edging, benefit from the superior cutting quality. In the machining of solid wood cutting qualities similar to microtome are attained; without protruding fibers and tearing of the knots. The achieved high quality of wooden products thus reduces waste and increases the yield in the production process. The jury was particularly impressed by p-System’s exceptional property, which is the combination of the best achievable cutting quality and the lowest cost per running meter. It is a real revolutionary innovation in the tool technology.
Further information:
www.leuco.com
Lindura® by Wood Powder Technology
from left to right: Niclas Håkansson, Darko Pervan, Guido Schulter and Johannes Schulte
Darko Pervan and Niclas Håkansson (Välinge Innovation , Sweden), Johannes and Guido Schulte (MeisterWerke, Germany) received the Innovation Prize 2015 for the highly innovative, wooden floor; Lindura® by Wood Powder Technology. This innovation is based on the Wood Powder Technology, which was developed by the company Välinge to reduce production steps in the manufacturing process of laminate flooring. The Wood Powder, a material mixture of fine wood fibers and other natural ingredients, is successfully implemented by the company MeisterWerke in its production of wooden floor Lindura®. In the first production phase of Lindura®, the Wood Powder is scattered as a backing layer on the HDF board, then HDF board is turned and the top layer of the board is scattered with Wood Powder and stabilised. Finally a thin veneer (0.6 mm!) is placed on the top and the HDF board is fed into a conventional short-cycle press. Under heat and pressure the Wood Powder melts and thus merges the top layer veneer to the HDF board. The outcome is a high-tech wood floor that is durable, easy to maintain and resilient, and has a unique, rustic character. Furthermore Lindura® is a resource saving wooden floor due to its thin veneer layer and the use of wood fibers from own internal processes for the mixture of Wood Powder.
Further information:
www.valinge.se
www.meisterwerke.com/en
X-RAD
from left to right: Albino Angeli, Gianni Dal Ri and Andrea Polastri
Albino Angeli and Gianni Dal Ri (Rotho Blaas srl., Italy) and Andrea Polastri (CNR-Ivalsa, Italy) were awarded the Innovation Prize 2015 for the development of the X-RAD. It is the new, efficient connection system for Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) and it offers an optimized and standardized solution to build with CLT. In the prefabrication at the mill each CLT panel gets an X-RAD connector screwed to its all four corners. The fully-threaded screws are secured with double inclination, thereby generating an earthquake-resistant connection. This connector type ensures exceptional shear and tensile strength, by which the mechanical performance of CLT can fully be exploited. The X-RAD-connectors secured to the CLT-plates also function as lifting points, which make the handling and assembly on the site safer and faster. The first CLT-plates on the site are assembled by mounting them through their X-RAD connectors to the metal plates, which are anchored to the foundation. The next CLT plates are just bolted together through their X-RAD-connectors. The highly innovative connection system X-RAD and the new assembling method without interposed floors, allows transferring extremely high tensile and shear stresses through the corners of the wall and floor panels. It opens new frontiers to build efficiently ever higher CLT buildings, that has not been possible to realise with the traditional systems.
Further information:
www.rothoblaas.com/en
ETH House of Natural Resources
from left to right: Jan Hamm, Katrin Hauser, Andrea Frangi and Flavio Wanninger
Andrea Frangi and Flavio Wanninger (both ETH Zürich), Katrin Hauser (Climate-KIC) and Jan Hamm (Häring) from Switzerland received the Innovation Prize 2015 for the pilot building, ETH House of Natural Resources. ETH Zurich developed together with several industrial partners four innovative building structures; all of them were out of hardwood and they were implemented in the pilot building in Zurich. The framing of the building is a post-tensioned timber frame; the beams are glued laminated timber out of spruce, locally reinforced with ash and the columns are all made of ash. Inside of the beams there are the cables for post-tension; the post-tensioning was carried out on the site. Another innovative building structure is the timber-concrete composite slab in the first floor; first the laminated veneer lumber (LVL) plates out of beech act on the site as formwork and then in combination with concrete as tensile load carrying component. Furthermore the LVL plates provide a visible surface for the ceiling. In the second floor there are hollow core elements with beams and boards at the bottom made of beech LVL, while the boards on the top are made of prefabricated concrete elements. In the central area of the second floor is a biaxial load-bearing wooden ceiling, all components are made of beech (cross-laminated timber panels and LVL studs). The building simultaneously serves as a research laboratory for sustainable building with hardwood products. The knowledge and experience gained allow a further development and improvement of innovative beech structures. Thus an intelligent building material for construction industry and the decision makers is presented: the beech.
Further information:
www.honr.ethz.ch/en
