Franz Herbert, Managing Director of Herbert-Fenster, warmly welcomed all participants, introduced the family business, and emphasized the importance of dialogue between industry, craftsmanship, and architecture.

Professor Annette Hillebrandt, Chair of Building Construction/Design and Materials Science at the University of Wuppertal, Germany, kicked off the event with her lecture on “Wooden Windows - Why and How?”. She presented the challenges and opportunities of sustainable construction and emphasized the importance of new product responsibility. The next contribution was from Stefan Glashauser of Münchinger, who explained the importance of wood species in window construction and the current certification standards. This was supplemented by Thorsten Kaderbach and Jens Moroder from Wald und Holz NRW, who provided insights into sustainable forestry and the role of wood as a renewable raw material, which is becoming increasingly important in modern window construction.

The participants were also given a factory tour, where they were impressed by the ultra-modern and largely automated production process at Herbert-Fenster. The wooden windows are not only produced using a CNC-controlled machining center, but the surface treatment is also applied via a fully automated spraying robot using Sikkens Wood Coatings products.

After the tour, the presentation “Paint the Future” by Heike Jänchen from AkzoNobel took center stage. The team from Sikkens Wood Coatings was invited to present at the event as the only wood coatings supplier, sharing their insights with an in-depth presentation exploring wood species to chemical and constructive wood protection. She also discussed the coating systems to be implemented at Herbert-Fenster.

In the future, Herbert-Fenster will be using an innovative coating system that not only improves the aesthetics of wooden windows but also their durability. Herbert-Fenster will use these coating systems to help reduce waste and increase profitability.

Henning Hild from Almut concluded the technical presentations with a talk on zero thresholds and the requirements of DIN 18040.