Wood based panel technology, glulam connectors, wood fibre boards and laminated wood turbine blades were among the award winners at this year’s prestigious Schweighofer Prize 2011.
Dieter Siempelkamp was named the main prize-winner at the awards ceremony in Vienna on June 16. Mr Siempelkamp, who received €100,000, won the prize for the revolutionary ContiRoll continuous press for wood based panel manufacturing.
Four innovation prizes worth €50,000 each were also awarded: Agepan THD Static wood fibre board manufactured by Sonae subsidiary Glunz AG; the TES Energy Façade, a timber-based system for building renovation; Hess Limitless, a connection system developed by Hess Timber for on-site assembly of long-span glulam beams; and glulam turbine blades for floating tidal power plants made by Moelven.
Sonae ceo Carlos Bianchi de Aguiar described the company’s innovation award as a great honour and likened it to the “Nobel Prize of the forest and wood industries”.
