Offering wood construction screws as well as fasteners for metal and plastics, SWG Schraubenwerk Gaisbach GmbH – Business Unit Production has carved out a reputation as a specialist in the timber field. The company fills us in on the 50th anniversary plans…
This year SWG Production is marking its 50th anniversary. Are there any special projects or celebrations to mark the milestone in 2017?
Yes – we have a celebration festival (from 8-10 September 2017) with our customers and mother house WÜRTH. During the year we also have planned promotions through our WÜRTH sister companies.
How many products does SWG Production offer now, compared with 50 years ago?
SWG Production started, still under the WÜRTH brand, in 1958 to produce brass screws for electricians. Today we are focused on wood construction screws for pre-engineered CLT panels, as well as additional fasteners for metal and plastics.
And how many staff does SWG Production have now, compared with 50 years ago?
Würth started with two men in 1958. Today we have more than 200 employees in the Business Unit Production.
For anyone unfamiliar with SWG Production, can you sum up what the company specialises in and how it is different to the competition?
SWG Production represents reliability, quality and high-end engineering in timber. SWG Production has approvals from important markets for its product range. Four years ago, the Canadian Construction Materials Centre issued its CCMC 13677-R and one year later we obtained ESR-3178 and ESR-3179 approval from the US. Thanks to those, our ASSY® screws can be used in wood construction right across Canada and the US. We are the first production facility to have all of these.
We aim to be a technology pioneer alongside our sales distribution network. Thanks to over 50 years’ experience, up-to-date equipment and forward thinking management we can provide unique quality solutions for our partners.
SWG Production launched an Engineering Division in 2014. Can you tell us about that and how it has enhanced the service that you offer?
We are satisfied having integrated an engineering office in the company which is a competitive advantage in our industry; they are focused on supporting structural designers in multiple story for residential and non-residential projects as industrial halls, bridges and diverse projects for CLT panels and wood concrete-composite slabs projects. So we are very well prepared to support the customers in the realisation of projects and ideas.
Last year in Vancouver, SWG Production was involved with a record breaking 53 metre high hybrid wood building. Did you produce special fasteners for this project?
We delivered high-quality-fasteners ASSY®-SK and ASSY®-Kombi. The challenge to involve our products in such projects is to provide the structural engineers during the planning phases with the technical options of wood construction screws. For this project our technical partner My-Ti-Con (SWG Engineering North America) in Vancouver supported the structural design engineers.
This article originally appeared in the February edition of Torque Magazine. Read the magazine in our archive and subscribe for free here.