Author: kallfass

On June 7, the mechanisation specialist Kallfass, Baiersbronn-Klosterreichenbach, Germany, had reason to celebrate: The company has been in existence for 75 years. This anniversary was taken as an opportunity to invite employees, suppliers and customers as well as the residents of Baiersbronn to a party in the new factory building. In the morning, a company outing led to best wood Schneider in Meßkirch, Germany, where Kallfass can now rightly call itself a vendor of choice.

This year Kallfass celebrates 75 years of success in mechanical and plant engineering. Today, the third generation – represented by Ernst and Volker Kallfass and Hans Haist – is managing the company. Since its foundation, the company has completed well over 1,000 complex projects for the timber processing industry. The long-established Black Forest company has made a name for itself worldwide, particularly as a mechanisation specialist and solution partner.

For the 75th anniversary celebration, which welcomed around 450 guests, Kallfass transformed the production hall into a “party mile”. A music band, various food trucks and a cocktail bar provide the perfect setting for an exuberant evening event. An open house day was held on June 8, during which interested parties were able to take a guided tour of the plant and gain an impression of the machine manufacturer's production volume.

Successive expansion

Founded in 1949 by Ernst Sr. and Frida Kallfass as a small workshop in Klosterreichenbach, Germany, the company initially carried out repair work for the local timber industry. However, the resourceful company founder soon developed his own machines, such as the groove and dovetailing machine or the plasma burner. The machine programme took a pioneering direction in 1965 with the development of the multiple circular cross-cut saw: This cutting system was developed due to the market maturity of Euro pallets for the mass production of fixed lengths. As a result, Kallfass launched the first automatic stacking machines for sawn timber on the market. Thanks to continuous further development, also for untrimmed goods, this multiple circular cross-cut saw is still the market-leading machine.

The founder's son, Ernst Kallfass, joined his parents' company in 1975 at the age of 24. Nine years later, he was handed the company’s reins and acting as Managing Director. With the constant support of his wife Ursula, he was then able to initiate a remarkable development of the company. With the entry into the construction of planing and sorting systems, he opened up new customer groups and switched from pure processing to the sawmill sector, where the first cross-cutting and stacking systems were used. In 1992, he founded a branch factory in Wernigerode, Germany to cope with the increased production capacity. The head office in Klosterreichenbach has also been continuously expanded. Following the acquisition of the former BRAUN Maschinen Fabrik in 2019, which is now used as a temporary warehouse and for test installations, Kallfass expanded its production by 750 m² in 2023. Now, the facility houses the final assembly line and a new paint shop. The latter was designed as two cubicles, one behind the other, each 10 m long. If necessary, the cubicles can be opened to paint particularly long machine parts.

Kallfass currently employs around 140 people The system technology is developed, planned, designed, manufactured, painted, and pre-assembled entirely in-house. In the electrical department, the control cabinets are manufactured in the in-house control cabinet construction department and here, the comprehensive programmes are written. Over the years Kallfass has successively expanded its product range. Today the company offers systems and complete mechanisations with integrated safety and control concepts for the production of construction, packaging and garden timber as well as glulam products.

Six years ago, Ernst Kallfass set his company up for the future. He appointed his son Volker Kallfass and his long-time companion Hans Haist as additional managing directors. Ernst Kallfass gradually withdrew from the operational business in order to concentrate on the strategic direction.

Complex mechanisation

Kallfass is known in the industry as a machine supplier who pragmatically harmonises the customer's requirements with the available space and develops the best technical solution for the situation. In addition to maximising production output, the focus is also on the highest possible degree of automation for the customer. Some process solutions for automation were so unique that they were patented. In the 1980s, for example, Kallfass was granted the patent for the first layer-by-layer processing of sawn timber and in 2019, Kallfass was granted the patent for its robotic handling system.

But the Kallfass portfolio is not limited to mechanisation: in 2019, the plant manufacturer also launched a cross laminated timber press onto the market.

Vendor of choice

One customer who has already utilised Kallfass' diverse solutions on several occasions is best wood Schneider. At the Meßkirch site, Kallfass supplied the complete mechanisation - from the fresh and dry sorting and the connection to the channel dryer to the feeding of the goods via the pre-planing to the cross laminated timber plant - as well as the CLT press itself, including numerous detailed solutions. To give all employees the opportunity to see “their” work live, Kallfass organised a company outing to best wood Schneider before the party on June 7. This event was also attended by colleagues from Wernigerode and their partners. In addition to Meßkirch site manager Andreas Schilling and junior manager Max Schneider, managing director Ferdinand Schneider also took the opportunity to take a group on a tour of the plant and point out the special production features.

Holzkurier (a German-language special interest B2B-magazine) has already reported on the sawmill and the Kallfass sorting plant as well as CLT production in Meßkirch (see Holzkurier issue 14/2024, p. 22 to 23, and 10/2023, p. 12 to 13). A rather smaller, but nevertheless very important part of Kallfass concerns the pre-planing process: After drying, all boards are transported online via conveyor belts to a cupping scanner, where the timber is turned to the correct side, if required. In the next processing step, the planer infeed, also made by Kallfass, accelerates the goods up to 250 m/min before they are levelled and scanned, and defects are marked. Kallfass then packs the goods crosswise, straps the wood packages and use roller conveyors to transports the wood packages to a high-bay warehouse which includes 1,450 storage locations.

Other current projects

Haist's current planing mill projects include deliveries to Rettenmeier Baltic Timber in Latvia with a maximum planing feed rate of 400 m/min and the complex planing mill from Dold in Buchenbach, Germany, which will be installed on two floors.

best wood Schneider, Rettenmeier Baltic Timber, and Dold are just a small selection of on-going projects. Kallfass reports that the current order situation is favourable and demand remains high.

Text and images: Martina Nöstler, Holzkurier
Issue 17/2024

The Kallfass representatives at the LIGNA Trade Fair in Hanover, Germany were pleased to welcome a large number of visitors. The exhibition team was especially happy about the many sincere inquiries—from sawmill technology inquiries to cross-laminated timber projects.

After a four-year interruption, Kallfass was again looking forward to a very positive event at the LIGNA Trade Fair. “We met with many visitors. Above all, we welcomed customers and prospective clients from the German-speaking regions and other European countries at our stand. But also international representatives, such as from South Africa or Australia, were represented here," reported Kallfass CEO Hans Haist.

Specific inquiries

The Kallfass trade fair team was particularly pleased with many concrete inquiries from new and existing customers. “In particular, we noticed a strong interest in projects involving cross-laminated timber. But also our sawmill and planing automation systems were in demand," concluded Haist. In contrast to the years before, the first days were very busy. Towards the end of the week, things were quieter than usual, as other exhibitors at the Ligna reported.

At the Ligna, Kallfass presented three exhibits: its cross-laminated timber press, a robot for filling stick magazines and the tried-and-tested Tongloader®(see Holzkurier issue 18, p. 30). In addition to its remarkable vertical pressing force of 1 N/mm2, the CLT press scored high with its uniform pressure distribution across the entire board. To achieve this, Kallfass uses four cylinders per press row. The Tongloader® is used to cycle-in boards of different thicknesses and at the same maintaining a time high production speed in the sorting and planing units. The capacity is 240 cycles a minute. The Tongloader® can handle wet and dry goods. The patented robot handling system for stacking with strip placement was also very well received. “Filling the stick magazines with a robot increases performance and cycle speed”, explained Haist.

The order books at Kallfass are well filled: In June, the installation of a box sorter at the Wolf sawmill in Germany will begin. The automation specialist also supplies this type of equipment to Eurolegnami in Italy, as well as to the Blanc sawmill in France. Also in June, Kallfass will install the entire automation factory for a planing mill, including a bundling system at Rettenmeier Baltic Timber in Latvia. The feed speeds of the afore-mentioned plant will reach up to 350 m/min.

With its CLT press, Kallfass meets the high demands that cross laminated timber producers make of flexible production. The panels are joined according to the zero joint principle. Process reliability is the top priority. There can be no compromising here if high panel quality and good approval values are to be achieved.

Kallfass, the automation professional from Klosterreichenbach/Germany, has already realised extensive mechanisation systems for CLT production in the past, including the KLH plant in Wiesenau, Austria and, also, various Stora Enso facilities in Ybbs and Bad St. Leonhard in Austria and Gruvön in Sweden. Kallfass incorporated the experience gained from this into the plant configuration at Stora Enso in Ždirec/Czech Republic last year. For the first time, an overall concept consisting of mechanisation and the company's own CLT press was offered, and another project with a CLT press is already in the implementation phase at best wood Schneider in Messkirch.

Pressing with maximum safety

Minimising interfaces is one of the central goals in every CLT plant. The step towards realisation of its own CLT press now offers Kallfass the opportunity to act as a main supplier for cross laminated timber production and optimally network production with a coordinated control concept. CLT process data and parameters can be recorded and archived on the master computer. For pressing, the press cake, which consists of single board layers glued crosswise and with a maximum height of 600 mm, is moved via a conveyor belt into the Kallfass CLT press. The CLT press consists of several press segments. The conveyor is reversible to enable return trips or emergency pressing in the event of a malfunction. This means that no valuable raw material is wasted and a degree of flexibility is achieved in production.

Flexible pressure

Pressing of single to multi-layer panels is realised with low maximum tolerance values of only 0.1 mm. This zero joint is achieved through a very high vertical pressing force of 1N/mm² in combination with uniform pressure distribution across the entire panel surface. Four cylinders are employed in each press row to ensure that the pressure is applied to every square millimetre. The pressure build-up is automatically controlled and adapted to the respective panel size, taking into account the elastic behaviour of wood. Furthermore, only those units and press punches required for the panel size are actuated. A speedier pressure build-up is achieved by pre-positioning the press plungers. Kallfass can supply its press with additional transverse pressure if wooden lamellas are to be pressed.

One press for numerous formats

The CLT press from Kallfass presses panel lengths from 8,000 to 16,000 mm and widths from 2,000 mm to 3,600 mm in a single pass. Individual panels can, at the customer's request, be automatically pushed off at the dry joint after the pressing process and separated again before being transferred to sanding machines or portal processing systems for further processing. When maintenance work is due, the press rams can be mechanically locked in the upper end positions to protect operating personnel. A continuous platform above the press facilitates accessing of hydraulic and electric systems.

In addition to being a major tourist attraction, the Black Forest is also a centre of development in the area of wood processing, with numerous global market leaders and mechanical engineers in the region involved in this sector. Forum Weisstanne reports on this in its anniversary magazine.

Forum Weisstanne, an association run by volunteers that seeks to improve the market situation of the Black Forest SILVER FIR, issued the Faszination Weißtanne magazine, a publication dedicated to the allure of the silver fir, in September to mark the occasion of its 25th anniversary. Over 40 reports address construction, architecture and marketing associated with regional timber. One contribution is dedicated to the Northern Black Forest and its global leaders in wood technology and engineering, including firms such as Linck, Kallfass, Homag and Schmalz.

The following is an excerpt from the article:

The Northern Black Forest – global leader in woodworking and wood processing engineering

The Northern Black Forest is a densely wooded area rich in timber that is frequently popularised as an attractive tourism destination or, indeed, a booming forestry and timber region.
And all this is true! But it is not the entire story, as the Northern Black Forest is also a region that produces many inventors. Most Germans are familiar with the Fischer plug, and many of them also know that these fixing elements were invented and are produced in the Black Forest. However, beyond the Black Forest, not many people know that the Northern Black Forest is centre of invention and development in woodworking and wood processing machinery.

The most widely known inventor in this respect is probably Max Himmelheber. Born in 1904 in Karlsruhe, Max grew up in a carpentry and joinery shop where he saw at first hand how large quantities of wood chips largely went unused. He began to tinker about with this material at an early age and, later as an electrical engineer, he examined options for using waste wood material. Max ultimately invented the chipboard in the 1930s, a development that we would today call a “turning point in the utilisation of wood”. Max Himmelheber then founded a company in Baiersbronn and established chipboard factories all over the world, issuing production licences to around 80 firms.
However, this was only the beginning of the machinery boom for woodworking and wood processing in the Black Forest. Numerous machine manufacturers are active today in this sector.
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Kallfass GmbH – Maschinen plus Automation, Klosterreichenbach, District of Freudenstadt

KALLFASS has been developing and producing machinery and systems for sawmills and the global timber processing industry in Klosterreichenbach, Germany since 1949. Kallfass solutions are customised and range from charging of small process units to the mechanising of complete production lines for sawing, planing, glueing, pressing and sorting of timber.

As a family-run business in its third generation, KALLFASS employs around 120 people at its main facility in Klosterreichenbach, Northern Black Forest, and another production location in Wernigerode (Saxony-Anhalt). The development, design, production, assembly and programming of plants are all realised completely in the company.

Wood harbours enormous potential for further development, thanks to the numerous options available for its use. KALLFASS helps its sawmill customers to implement innovative product ideas and achieve special production requirements in practice and develops tailored fully automated process and plant technology. KALLFASS has readied a wealth of new developments for series production.

This success has also been demonstrated by the KALLFASS multiple circular cross-cut saw. Designed in 1965, its precision and flexibility in wood cutting has today made it the global leader among multiple circular cross-cut saws in this sector, and it is integrated in cutting systems and sorting and planing plants. The tried and trusted KALLFASS box sorter is a further success story. Timber in a variety of dimensions can be stored in the interim in large space-saving boxes for further use. This means that packages with the same dimensions and quality can be created later from different boards from the same log.