Readers of WBPI will be very familiar with press lines, refiners, chippers, sanders and saws and the whole panoply of machinery needed to make their panels.
However, the wood does not arrive at the front end of those lines by magic. It requires transporting from ship, to rail or road truck, to woodyard, and from woodyard to the beginning of the production process, which is where Sennebogen comes in.
Founded in 1952 by the present owner Erich Sennebogen, now in his 70s, who still lives in an apartment atop the office building at Straubing, the company began by producing manure loaders, reflecting Mr Sennebogen’s farming background.
Those first machines, while they may be a far cry from a panel mill, were specifically designed for purpose and it seems that has always been the philosophy behind the  company’s products.
Mr Sennebogen’s two sons, Erich junior and Walter, run the sales and marketing, and accounts for the business, respectively.
The product range is divided into three principal ‘colour-coded’ lines: cranes, both heavy-duty and telescopic (yellow line); materials handling machines (green line); and mobile harbour/port cranes (blue line).
Sennebogen also produces special base carriers as modular components. These can carry and power a variety of attachments and the customer can specify the engine, connecting points, multiple hydraulic systems, wheeled or tracked undercarriages, cabs and other customised solutions.
In the early days you would find Sennebogen machines on construction sites, but not today – at least not a recent machine – as the company now prefers to specialise in its niche markets where there is somewhat less global competition.
The company has two factories in Germany – the main one in Straubing and another in Wackersdorf, 80km away. It also has a factory in Hungary where the steel components for machine undercarriages are produced for the German factories.
Until now, the Wackersdorf factory has produced the smaller Caterpillar machines but this arrangement has come to an end and Sennebogen will now produce its own machines there; in fact it badly needed the production space for its own products.
In line with its modular production philosophy, the company principally offers two engines, from Caterpillar and Deutz, with John Deere power units for the US market.
For the panel industry, it is the ‘green line’ machines which are of particular interest and general materials handling equipment is the biggest-selling line for Sennebogen.
Each vehicle in the factory is custommade to order, starting with the undercarriage – the components for which are prefabricated in Hungary and modified to customer specification at Straubing.
First the hand made tracks, or the rubber- tyred wheels, are fitted to make a rolling base and then the required upper parts are fitted: the body, the appropriate engine, which ranges from a 70kW to a 700kW unit, and the hydraulics. Tracked bases can be made with adjustable width for transportation or storage or can be operated at the narrower width in confined spaces.
Then the cab and the jib are fitted to the body and finally the specific lifting gear, such as a log grab, is added.
The factory took delivery of a new stateof-the-art CNC drilling centre this year to add to the existing one and these two machines accurately drill the heavy undercarriages for attaching the components. Hydraulic cylinder pistons are also machined on site, on a computer-controlled lathe.
“Nearly all our staff, including at director level, are trained in our own training centre here and we try to retain our trained staff within the company,” said Mr Kirst,  international marketing manager.
“This is a family-owned business and all the employees are part of the family – there are a thousand people in the whole group, with 350 here in Straubing.”
All machines are thoroughly tested in the yard before delivery to the customer.
When repairs are required, customers are guaranteed a 24-hour delivery worldwide, unless the logistics are impossible of course; some of those parts are big and heavy.
One of Sennebogen’s innovative ideas was to mount its cabs in such a way that they can be hydraulically raised to enable the driver to see over the side of a truck he is loading or unloading, for example. Another was to put a heavy chain in the jaws of the log grab, to lie on a partial load of logs and stop them from sliding out.
Another instance of such lateral thinking was exhibited for the first time at Ligna 2005, and this was the idea of moving the boom mounting to the back of the vehicle on the 7-Series, thus improving all-round vision for the driver.
Alfred Endl, president of sales and operations, emphasised the importance of the wood products industry to Sennebogen.
“Sawmills and the wood based industry in general are a major part of our business because of our range of ‘pick and carry’ machines.We go for special solutions, niches and smaller quantity production, while our competitors are more in mass production. We have had a strong five years because of this. The logging, port, recycling/ scrap industries are all strong for us.”
Mr Endl outlined how the company got to where it is today: after that first manure loader in 1953, Sennebogen produced a mechanised grabber the following year and in 1957 turned to the construction industry with a mechanical rope excavator.
“By 1960, we had produced our 1,000^th crawler/mobile crane, while in 1964, we  produced the first hydraulically operated excavator – an example of the innovation on which this company is founded,” said Mr Endl.
In 1969, Sennebogen moved into truck cranes with lattice booms and in the same year, produced the world’s first fully hydraulic rope excavator.
Three years later came plastic and GRP bodywork – another first – followed by the industrial carry deck crane in 1977 which led to diversification into other industries.
For many years, Sennebogen made machines for other companies and hence its name did not appear on some of its most significant advances; examples are Zeppelin, Hanomag and Caterpillar-labelled vehicles.
“The real development of our identity took place in the 1990s,” said Mr Endl.
The Green Line of materials handling machines was developed by Erich Sennebogen junior in 1996.
Sennebogen has 50 distributors in Europe, Asia and Australia and 21 in North America, including 120 depots.
The 7-Series log picker/grabber has been a strong sales line and there are units working 23 hours a day all year round at some customers, according to Mr Endl. “Its 360o working radius and all-wheel steering mean it takes up very little manoeuvring space and therefore frees up storage area,” he said.
Sennebogen avoids complicated electronics in its vehicles, preferring less sensitive systems. “We can avoid electronics and rely on electrical and hydraulic systems because we are dedicated to materials handling, unlike our competitors. Customers can be quickly trained in any necessary service and maintenance routines,” said Mr Endl.