With an investment of around 18 million euros, the internationally active Pfeifer Holding has completely modernised its solid wood panel plant at its headquarters in Imst. Conversion to state-of-the-art thin-cutting band saws reduces the use of raw materials by around 120 lorry loads per year.

The comprehensive measures were realised in three expansion stages and enabled significant improvements in efficiency and raw material yield, which should ensure the long-term competitiveness of the site, the company informs. The investment project started in 2020 and 2021 with the replacement of the centre layer production, followed by the comprehensive renewal of the cover lamella production in 2022 and 2023. The last milestone to date was reached in 2024 with the installation of a fully automated repair station, which recognises and removes cosmetic defects such as knotholes, resin pockets, joints or cracks fully automatically.

INCREASED
According to Pfeifer, the fully automated process is accompanied by an increase in performance of more than 20 per cent for the entire plant. Thanks to the high degree of automation, necessary manual activities such as the visual sorting of the cover slats or the labour-intensive manual stacking of the cut cover slats are now a thing of the past. The investments have also led to a significant increase in safety at the workstations, thus making a lasting contribution to employee health and satisfaction.

INPUT
The modernised plant also ensures significantly higher yields, the company adds. The changeover from conventional circular saw technology to state-of-the-art thin-cutting band saws is paying off, particularly with regard to the use of raw materials: This would save around 6,000 m³ of sawn timber per year, which corresponds to around 120 lorry loads that no longer need to be delivered. According to the company, these advances emphasise the sustainable focus and conservation of resources in the production process.

Source: pfeifergroup.com