KVH®-1plus® - quality solid structural timber

KVH®-1plus® of the Rettenmeier Zunftholz® brand is a quality planed wooden component outstanding for its properties and its price-performance ratio.

KVH®-1plus®is the optimal alterative to traditional structural timbers and glued woods such as Duo/Trio beams, laminated beams and glue lam beams.

Depending on the area of application KVH^®-1plus^® is produced in two qualities:

• SI for visible applications, such as free-standing supports, visible ceiling beams and rafters. Since cracking can occur when large wood cross-sections are dried, which no longer meets the high optical quality requirements, we offer large wood cross-sections in form of QLH-Duo-/Trio-plus (quality laminated wood).
• NSI for non-visible applications, such as wall reinforcements, cladded ceiling beams and rafters.

Up to a few years ago, owners, architects, planners and carpenters complained about the disadvantages of customary sawn construction timber.  Quality, especially in expensive timber construction, no longer met the increased requirements for wood as a modern building material.

Between 1991 and 1993, Rettenmeier together with the German Master Carpenters Association undertook extensive practical tests into the raw materials selection, sawing, sorting and technical drying of big cross sections of timber. This innovation process resulted in the present-day KVH solid structural wood.

Rettenmeier now produces the KVH^®-1plus^® product not only according to minimum requirements but also creates a quality product for its customers. That’s what the KVH^®-1plus^® name stands for.

Precise dimensional stability, physically secure construction, good price-performance ratio – all requirements of the KVH®-1plus® end product must be kept continuously in view throughout the production process.  The prerequisites for this depend on perfectly organised work processes.  Already at the sawing stage, work is carefully done.  The special type of cut is one of the chief means of maintaining dimensional stability and of a major reduction in cracking.  This working stage is undertaken with the most modern profiling technology at Rettenmeier.  High performance planing installations ensure precise dimensional accuracy and high surface quality for KVH®-1plus®, even with large-dimension cross sections.

So only sawn wood of the defined, above-average quality is used for KVH^®-1plus^®, aspects reducing stability are removed during production.  Linking strength and shape retention allows products to be produced of theoretically unlimited length.  

At Rettenmeier, finger joint connections are used, one of the most secure, effective and modern methods.   With S10 / DIN 4074 sorted timbers a finger joint connection possesses a rigidity at least as high as any possible permissible branch. Finger jointing therefore does not represent a weakness even with the customary cross-sections of construction timbers and therefore can be ignored on static measurement.

However, not every firm may produce finger jointing.  The most important legal prerequisite for finger jointing is to obtain new gluing approval from an independent monitoring body, which checks the technical and craftsman conditions and which is, at Rettenmeier, also responsible for the special quality control of finger-joint KVH^®-1plus^®

Before finger-jointing, each individual piece is automatically checked for its target humidity and non-conformities are sorted out.  Gluing is carried out with a recognised high-stress adhesive approved under DIN 1052-1.  In addition, both of the finger joints to be stuck together are glued.  A double coating of glue ensures a high degree of security.  The particular Rettenmeier security: finger jointed solid structural wood KVH^®-1plus^® is marked with the production date, so it is possible to trace the path each individual component has taken.

The KVH^®-1plus^® quality system for the Rettenmeier Zunftholz® brand is far more than the defined minimum requirement for solid structural wood.  It is an acknowledgement of the tradition and principles of the guilds – honest hand-crafting and masterly quality – at all production levels.  So that our products will also in future be recognised as the most modern and contemporary, we set the highest quality standards at fair prices.

see why below...

With over 40 standard cross sections at different lengths for various uses in timber construction, KVH^®-1plus^® always guarantees the same, excellent quality.

And even more. The finished goods are stored with greatest level of care and circumspection at Rettenmeier.  A subsequent reduction in quality is prevented by first class recyclable packaging of 100 percent Polyethylene.  This offers sufficient protection against weathering.  Soiling and excessive dampness do not have a chance.  A large store ensures the highest level of readiness to deliver.

Protective storage for quality and a precisely functioning materials handling system therefore ensures ongoing stocking of approx. 5,000 cbm KVH^®-1plus^® ready for call and commissioning.  In addition, Rettenmeier sells KVH^®-1plus^® by list.  Orders can therefore be realized individually, without high cutting losses.

In other words, Rettenmeier is fully prepared at all times for “just in time” delivery according to demand and individual requirements.