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Statements
Jakob Hasslacher
Founder
Ever generation has its time and times are changing. And every generation has to do things in the way of its time.
Herbert Kulterer
Senior CEO
There is no secret to passing a family company on to the next generation successfully. One thing that is required, however, is to pass on a sense of responsibility. And the most important one is to have fun with what you're doing.
Christoph Kulterer
CEO & Owner of the HASSLACHER Group
„From wood to wonders by innovation.“
The HASSLACHER Group’s innovations enable us to furnish our customers with a decisive competitive edge vis-à-vis its competitors – whether this is in terms of price, by developing more efficient (and thus more cost-effective) production methods, or in terms of quality, by researching new and improved products. The focus here is always on handling the valuable raw material wood in a conservative way along the entire value chain, from the trunk to the finished product.
Product development
GLT® – Girder Longitudinally Tensiletested
In cooperation with the Technical University of Graz, the HASSLACHER Group developed a tensile load test method for structural finger jointed solid timber. The elements thus quality-tested are not only safe in their application, but also calculated just like glued laminated timber, saving resources and money.
GLT® – Girder Longitudinally Tensiletested
Thanks to the fact that every single rod is tensile-tested, building with wood becomes even safer and more efficient:
Even safer as «proof loading» excludes areas that would reduce strength as early as the production process. Errors in grading and production of finger-jointed elements can thus be detected safely and these elements can be rejected.
Even more efficient, as reduced partial safety factors can be used in calculation, just like it is done with the homogenised glued laminated timber. This results in slimmer and thus more resource-friendly cross-sections.
Protecting the climate and thus storing CO₂ is a hot topic, and for good reasons. Those who choose to build with wood can actively contribute to protecting the climate as the CO₂ stored in the wood remains locked in a timber structure. The job of the timber industry is to turn as much of this resource as possible into building products and use wood in a cascading fashion, whenever and wherever possible. Simply burning the wood would eliminate the long-term Co₂-storage₂ effect.
BSP – crack and gap free
Most complaints in connection with cross laminated timber concern the formation of cracks and gaps. Built from three layers, like a smaller version of cross laminated timber, our Excellent Lamellas eliminate this weakness. Thanks to a thin top layer, even noble wood species such as fir, stone pine, birch and oak can be used cost-efficiently on the surface of our cross laminated timber elements.
BSP – crack and gap free
Cross laminated timber made it possible to provide the building industry with large-format, load-transferring timber building materials for the first time. Its large formats make building with wood efficient and thus affordable. Its versatility as roof, ceiling, exterior or interior wall elements and even beams make this building material so appealing. Another one of its advantages lies in the favourable relationship between density and load-carrying capacity which is why this material is often used in urban residential area densification.
Birch4GLT – Building with hardwood
Glued laminated timber made from birch not only lowers the built-up areas, but also costs: Architects, designers and clients are equally wowed by its elegant appearance. After years of research and a number of successfully implemented trial projects, the HASSLACHER Group finally managed to obtain a European Technical Assessment (ETA) for its birch Glulam in its anniversary year of 2021.
Birch4GLT – Building with hardwood
Hardwoods such as birch are a largely unused resource. Among the hardwoods, birch is particularly interesting thanks to its high strength and stiffness at relatively low density. Moreover, it is easy to glue and process.
Compared to conventional softwoods, birch allows us to save up to 30 % in volume in modern timber engineering. This is made possible by its outstanding mechanical properties.
Softwoods such as spruce will remain the most important wood species in the building sector, yet the use of hardwoods will become more and more important in the future.
X-fix C
X-fix C is a double-dovetail and wedge-shaped wood-to-wood system joint simply, quickly and safely connecting cross laminated timber ceiling elements. X-fix ceiling assembly has been proven to be up to 30 % faster than conventional methods at the construction site.
Glued laminated timber + cross-laminated timber = HASSLACHER ribbed panel ceiling
The rigid bonding of glued laminated timber ribs and cross laminated timber panels creates a new building material called the ribbed panel ceiling. By acquiring a new press for composite elements, the HASSLACHER Group created the foundation for the production of this resource-friendly ceiling system at its Hermagor site.
Glued laminated timber + cross-laminated timber = HASSLACHER ribbed panel ceiling
The topic of climate protection is THE trend of the present & the future and it is precisely in this context that the natural and renewable resource wood will gain in importance. Every building material has its justification when used correctly. In the future, wood hybrids, e.g. timber-concrete composite systems, will be increasingly used in construction. Especially in multi-story residential buildings, the requirements for sound insulation are becoming increasingly stringent, which is where a wood-concrete hybrid material can provide valuable services.
Wood will play an increasingly important role in the area of urban redensification, because it is light on the one hand and offers high load-bearing capacity on the other. Additions of floors can thus be realised more easily, since the additional floors made of wood only transfer low loads to the underlying structure or foundations.
ROTATED. 3D. FORMED.
HESS FREE FORM is used to realize fascinating and free-formed supporting structures, sculptures and building envelopes made of glued laminated timber or other wood-based materials. Free-formed structures typically consist of many differently shaped individual components, which require holistic planning and manufacturing. Each process step is crucial and great experience is necessary.
ROTATED. 3D. FORMED.
Only on this basis can HESS FREE FORM projects be realized worldwide and even the most unusual ideas of architects and customers be implemented.
Innovation – A glance into the future
Surface refinement
In modern timber construction, surfaces are more and more often coated for decorative or protective reasons. Our surface refinement centre, which was developed to cater to the furniture industry and thus scaled up accordingly, allows for this as early as the prefabrication phase.
Surface refinement
We currently use water-based surface refinement techniques. These protect the wood on the one hand and serve decorative purposes on the other. In the future, it will be possible, to print every image, photo or décor of choice onto cross laminated timber surfaces. Plotter-like units capable of applying 4-colour-prints onto the cross laminated timber will allow for that.
Spray films could replace protective films protecting noble wood surfaces. These can be removed like a decal once the building project is finished.
The application of conductive materials such as extremely thin metal layers could replace intricate wiring and BUS systems in the future.
The current limits are: The natural swelling and shrinking of wood can lead to cracks in the surface – something that cannot happen with the HASSLACHER Group’s Excellent Surface.
“No limits” thanks to HESS LIMITLESS
HESS LIMITLESS is a complete solution for the production of endless bar-shaped components. Segmentation often provides the decisive advantage, especially for overseas projects or narrow access roads. In addition, the pure timber-to-timber connection is superior to conventional connection technologies in terms of efficiency.
“No limits” thanks to HESS LIMITLESS
HESS LIMITLESS shows its advantages especially in rather hard-to-access places, overseas or on narrow, winding roads. If the HESS LIMITLESS system were transferred to cross-laminated timber, orthotropic panels similar to those used in concrete construction and joist free structures would be conceivable.
High degree of prefabrication
Among other advantages, a high degree of prefabrication makes timber construction superior to other building materials. Precise planning, low manipulation efforts and factory quality assurance concepts, as well as optimised costs on the construction site, particularly characterise prefabrication.
High degree of prefabrication
The great advantage of timber construction lies in its high degree of prefabrication. Trade work is transferred to the workshop, saving costs and ensuring quality. The resulting elimination of transports reduces noise and dust pollution and thus protects the environment. The time saved on construction sites leads to faster rental income returns and fewer obstructions, such as traffic detours.
Furthermore, the lightweight materials are interesting for unused courtyards for residential densification in cities.
CLT 4.0
In order to be able to identify cross laminated timber components clearly and at any time during production, they are equipped with an RFID chip. This system can also provide excellent services further down the line: In the future, RFID could supply a forklift guidance system or truck drive-through portal with the data or supplement the customer's assembly plans.
CLT 4.0
When processing wood as a sustainably renewable raw material, quality can be guaranteed: The wood can always be traced during the individual production steps. This allows us to estimate when a production step is completed or where the component is currently located.
The processing machines can communicate with each other.
In the future, the RFID chips could be equipped with additional functions, such as moisture and temperature monitoring. Pressure sensors could provide timely warnings in the event of overloading. By displaying a virtual model of the component with corresponding position information to the workers via glasses, coordination on the construction site can be improved. Furthermore, it is possible to check at an early stage whether the building material has been delivered in full.
Resource preservation through high-quality cross laminated timber strength class
The mechanical properties of spruce vary greatly. This scatter can be reduced by machine grading, and high-quality lamellas can be removed and specifically incorporated in the cross laminated timber’s cross-section. This results in cross laminated timber with a significantly higher strength class and thus higher properties. This saves valuable resources.
Resource preservation through high-quality cross laminated timber strength class
Precise grading results in boards with extremely high strength in outer areas. This means basically mimicking the tree whose highest strength is found in its highly stressed outer areas (adult wood).
When using this high-quality cross laminated timber, up to 15 % of timber volume can be saved due to its high mechanical properties. In addition, one can save lots of resources and costs.
PEL 4.0 (Pellets)
The NIR method makes it possible to identify the most important quality parameters of pellets in seconds intervals by means of physics. This allows one to quickly and effortlessly respond to quality fluctuations and immediately alter the production process.
PEL 4.0 (Pellets)
Random monitoring can be eliminated thanks to online quality assurance. Quality parameters such as moisture, strength (abrasion), ash content, bulk density and net calorific value can be determined every second. The operator responds to quality fluctuations immediately based on a comprehensive database and not only on empirical data. The results of quality assurance can also be used for self-monitoring. The NIR method enables continuous process monitoring as well as continuous control of production parameters. In the future, automatic operation thanks to artificial intelligence (AI) would thus be conceivable.
Despite the fact that I – the only German in the class – was a grade-A student and the top pupil in class, I was not allowed to go to college as my father couldn't afford the costs thanks to his large family. I acquired all the knowledge the versatility of my line of business required by myself.