One of the most modern saw mills for small diameter logs, Gelo Timber in Wunsiedel, starts its operation after only 11 months of erection time.

A few days before Christmas, General Manager Wolf-Christian Küspert and Project Manager Sergej Fink together with their business partners and colleagues saw the first log running into the sawmill.

In future 350,000 solid m³ logs are cut per year at the 100,000 m² area. 35 new jobs are created with this investment of about 40 million Euro.

Building a sawmill based on most modern points was the aim from the beginning. This included also the reduction of material handling to a minimum. Thus, it was decided not to invest in a petrol operated log handling machine, but using an electrically driven gantry crane type SENNEBOGEN instead. The concept that was developed together with HOLTEC focusses on savings in fuel and CO₂ as well as optimal land use and efficiency.

HOLTEC supplied the complete log yard mechanization as well as the sawmill infeed for the new GELO site. In both systems the innovative chainless technology is implemented, feeding up to 40 logs / min.

Thanks to a good cooperation between plant operator and suppliers, the new site has been put into operation in record time.