There was no doubt that the buzz was definitely there this year for Ligna.
The world’s largest exhibition for the forestry and timber industries in Hannover is a must attend event to see the latest in machinery, tooling and software.
And from the first day, the aisles were busy with prospective buyers from across the world, including quite a few UK & Irish timber companies.
Organiser Deutsche Messe has crunched the final numbers and they’re very impressive – more than 1,500 exhibitors on some 129,000m2 of net display space, with 93,000 visitors, including some 42,000 attendees coming from more than 100 different countries outside of Germany.
The top 10 visitor nations after Germany were France, Austria, the United States, Sweden, Belgium, Spain, China, Poland, Italy and Russia.
Wood Industry Digitalisation
If there was one concept that managed to come to the fore this year, it had to be digitalisation of the factory or the so-called “Industry 4.0” – the next level of data transfer between machines.
“Ligna 2017 will go down as a milestone in the digitalisation of the wood industry,” said Dr Andreas Gruchow, the Deutsche Messe managing board member in charge of Ligna.
A major emphasis was placed on digitalisation, integration and automation – both for large factories and small companies.
Homag went big on this concept, launching its new digital platform, Tapio, designed to provide live status updates across the whole production facility. Huge screens showed how Tapio, built in partnership with Microsoft, is the “first of its kind” cloudbased service for the woodworking industry.
Accessible through an app on a mobile phone, tablet or even smart watch, the ‘mesboard’ screen displays live information on production progress and the status of all workstations.
Alerting notifications allow the operator to work more efficiently, send reminders on future maintenance or warnings when a critical value crosses a threshold. The net result, says Homag, is reducing any possible downtime and ensuring peak production times are not compromised.
Fifty Homag machines on the stand covering every performance category were linked to Tapio. They communicated with each other to provide end-to-end production automation, with an operator checking it all on his smart watch.
Weinig launched its W4.0 digital standard, to provide a solution to networked production challenges. “We need to use the data for intelligent products and processes so our customers have added value,” it said.
About 5,000 Weinig customers have the option of its Service App – giving a full overview of production anywhere, anytime. Benefits include preventative maintenance and production analysis.
Meanwhile, Biesse said 35% of its €45m-worth of orders recorded at Ligna were Industry 4.0 lines.
“Our customers want to predict and not just prevent,” said Biesse wood division sales director Federico Broccoli. “This means reading all the data on the machine.”
Biesse’s stand motto was “Thinkforward”.
On its 5,000m2 stand it presented an area dedicated to doors and windows, featuring Rover technology and the new WinLine 16, a new multi-centre dedicated to small companies aiming to increase production as well as larger operations producing small, non-standard size batches or remakes.
WinLine 16, featuring a double electrospindle, produces standard and special linear frames, including arches.
The new Rover M5 was at Ligna for the first time. Designed for the creation of unusual, unique products, larger objects and design pieces, it allows for pieces measuring up to 535mm in height to be loaded.
Fellow Italian machinery producer SCM said it was “overwhelmed” by the internationality of Ligna, reporting customers from 60 countries.
It launched several products in the timber construction sector – the six-axis OIKOS, for machining structural beams and cross-laminated timber wall panels and AREA for machining walls, insulating panels and curved beams.
The latter has a maximum worktable dimensions of 4.5m wide and 50m long. The Oikos is capable of machining without having to turn over or reposition the beams with a maximum width of 1250mm, thickness of 300mm and length of 19m.
“This improves precision as the beam can go directly from the machine to the site without the need for any manual adjustment,” SCM said.
Also displayed at Ligna for the first time was the Accord 50fxm CNC machining centre, a five-axis unit for complex-shaped and large-sized routing and drilling of workpieces up to 500mm in height.
Cross-Cutting and Moulders
Italian cross-cutting specialist Salvador had its largest-ever stand at Ligna.
The product focus included Superangle 600 ALL IN-1, featuring angular cutting to drilling operations, as well as Supercut 500 and Superpush 200 in the “window” version for the production of window and door frames. “We can say that we’ve obtained feedback on a global level; from Europe, mainly, but also from Asian countries we were looking forward to meet,” said Christian Salvador.
Salvador has a collaboration agreement with Stiles Machinery in North America which will see it present its Superpush 200 at the AWFS Fair in Las Vegas, in the colours of Stiles.
PAUL Maschinenfabrik’s SlimLine F Cross-Cut System under the Reinhardt brand was also premiered. The push-feed cross-cut system with integrated rip saw has been specifically developed for the packaging industry and is ideally suitable for the automated cutting of closed-deck pallets and cases on a single machine.
Meanwhile, big news in planer/moulders came from Homag, which is entering this market via a partnership with established moulder manufacturer Leadermac. Homag presented two four-sided moulders.
The LPP 305 is a five-head machine with a capacity of 230x130mm and a feed speed from 6-24m/min and cutter head speeds variable from 4,000-8,000RPM.
The larger LPP 307F model with seven heads was demonstrated, attracting great interest from the crowds. All models have Homag’s PowerTouch controller as standard.
Innovation Lights Up
Weinig promised visitors a “fireworks of innovation”, including the new Powermat, which had a camouflage livery as a “disguised prototype” for the show.
The display model was integrated into new infeed and outfeed mechanisation, with a feed speed of up to 100m/min, producing tongue and groove boards, MDF strips, and a clapboard with a rough surface.
Its updated features include new simplified outboard bearing technology for the spindle, a new jointing system, and automatic adjustment with the machine hood closed. Weinig said the machine created enormous added value in terms of ease of operation, operator safety, set-up time reduction and, ultimately, final product quality.
Weinig was also sharing its 4,000m2 stand with group company and panel specialist Holz-Her for the first time.
Orders generated at Ligna for Weinig were worth €47m. “The Weinig Group is very confident of achieving the order inflow total of €471m targeted for 2017,” it said.
Heavy-duty Slovenian planer/moulder manufacturer Ledinek was marking its 40th Ligna show. It has found a ready market in UK/Ireland sawmills over many years, reporting that Multiplan machines were sold last year to Eglinton Timber Products and Drenagh Sawmills in Northern Ireland. In the Republic of Ireland, customers for its Superplan machines include ECC, Murray Timber and Glennon Brothers.
Among Ledinek’s other product areas (including CLT presses, glulam beam production and finger-jointing technology), the company highlighted its growing CLT press business. This, it says, is being helped by changing planning regulations allowing more timber multi-storey buildings.
Timber Construction Technology
Staying on the subject of timber construction, Ligna represented the debut of Uniteam under the Biesse Group brand.
Uniteam squares the circle for Biesse in that the latter’s machines for producing items for housing like doors and windows are now completed by equipment for producing the house structure itself.
“It [Biesse’s ownership] is giving us more visibility and investment,” said Silvano Maddalon, Uniteam area sales manager. Uniteam has supplied equipment for the L&G CLT factory in England for routing and cutting of large CLT panels.
It has also won another contract with a housing association in the south of England. On display was the Uniteam CK for machining of complex architectural elements for civil engineering, swimming pool roofs and sport centres. It is capable of machining beams with cross-sections of up to 1000x300mm and lengths of up to 14m.
The Uniteam E MIX, a machining centre for cutting CLT panels up to 300mm thick, was also demonstrated. Uniteam machining centres can carry out all the most common cuts including mortice and tenon, strut, half lap joint, profile and dovetail joint.
German timber frame manufacturing technology producer Weinmann had a new cost-effective multi-function bridge – the WMS060 – on its biggest-ever Ligna stand. “I think there is big potential in the UK and we can see the market growing,” said Weinmann marketing manager Tamara Brumm.
The WMS060 is an entry-level machine for timber frame manufacturing, capable of producing walls, roofs, floors or gables, equipped with stapling, nailing and routing units, the latter for routing of openings in the panels.
Weinmann is currently delivering a SKr95m contract with Lindbaecks Bygg AB in Piteå, Sweden, which it describes as the most modern timber construction plant in Europe with a speed of more than 1m of wall per minute and annual capacity of 1,600 flats. Hundegger UK general manager Chris Osborne described the UK market as very positive, reporting that several European companies were looking to set up timber frame factories in the UK.
Machines on show included the ROBOTDrive joinery machine with new 29kW high-performance unit, the TURBO-Drive automatic cutting machine with new touch-screen operating concept and the SPM- 2 panel processing centre.
Hundegger reported great interest in its new ROBOT-Solo compact entry-level class, featuring a six-axis robot arm.
“Many companies that have never thought of a fully-automated CNC system are now quite interested,” said Hundegger, which sells the machine from €200,000.
It completes all processing steps in all angles and inclinations without turning. The maximum cross-section is 30x65cm and the toolchanger features up to 21 tools.
Also displaying timber frame panel fabrication technology was UK-based JJ Smith, with the MBA Mobi-One, a complete work station for the assembly of timber frame walls, staples and nailing and featuring new communication technology between the drives, which minimises delays.
“There is a lot of movement in the UK housebuilder market,” said JJ Smith managing director Martin Smith. “The Irish market has also picked up again.”
Swedish timber construction machinery producer Randek spoke to several companies who were interested in entering timber frame manufacturing for the first time.
Sawmill Machinery
At the sawmilling end of the industry, UK Ligna stalwart Stenner said the show had been “alive and kicking”.
“The number of enquiries was up significantly on previous years but not only are the numbers improved but the quality of the enquiries were very, very good” said Stenner sales director Fred Harding.
“I think the stand was the best we have ever done with the machines and graphics perfectly reflecting the current Stenner product mix,” commented Stenner managing director Syd Mather.
A three-head MHS9 horizontal resaw – destined to be installed as part of a project for Woodfab – and ST100R single standalone resaw with fence setting system, spray lube system and variable speed pulley rotation were on display.
The company secured a show order to supply two VHET120 twin resaws to an existing client in Estonia.
Broadbaek has secured three orders recently in the Irish sawmilling industry, with sales manager Claus Hesel declaring that there would be an “Irish spring” in 2018 when these projects start being installed. “We have a lot of projects with Irish customers right now,” he said.
“From a Brexit point of view, the pound sterling exchange rate having lost so much [since the vote] means they have to improve their efficiency in order to be competitive.” Contracts include Coolrain Sawmills, Murray Timber and Laois Sawmill.
Söderhamn Eriksson Ltd managing director Darren Oldham agreed that Brexit was not proving an issue for customers.
“People are not sitting on their hands whether it’s Brexit or not. The world will not end and people will still produce timber and need timber.”
Soderhamn Erikkson completed a major upgrade to A&J Scott’s main volume production sawmill Mill 7 last year.
Edging, ripping and cross-cutting specialist PAUL Maschinenfabrik introduced the M34G Multirip Circular Saw, successor to the series K34G, featuring a touch-screen control, remote maintenance, faster saw shaft change by an optional automatic HSK clamping system, an optimised dust extraction device and new cubic visual design.
German sawmill machinery manufacturer Linck had a “very good” 2016, with some orders for the next year. Linck sales and marketing manager Manfred Leopold said he had not known an opening Monday at Ligna to be so busy before.
It singled out the German, New Zealand and French markets in particular. Its recent developments on display at Ligna included new generation chipper heads – changing them over takes 30min instead of four hours previously.
Other developments are energy recovery in the cant turner, as well as belt instead of chain drives to require less maintenance. SCA’s Tunadal mill has installed this system and it operates at speeds of up to 200m/min.
Scanning
Scanning specialist Microtec reported that French sawmill Piveteau Scierie signed a sales contract for its CT Log scanner at Ligna.
The sawmill is the second customer to invest in the CT Log Industrial Computed Tomography Scanner system this year, following Sweden’s Norra Group.
New on the stand was the Goldeneye 800 Multi-Sensor Quality Scanner to maximise recovery for high-speed planer mills and manufacturers of construction lumber.
It features three X-ray sources for precise pith and knot area ratio detection at feed speeds of up to 1,200m/min.
RemaSawco promoted its total sawline scanning concept, reporting two big installations to date – Moelven’s Valåsen mill and at Stenvalls Trä. It has some enquiries from the UK and sees large potential in North America.
Tooling
Tool maker Leitz communicated a whole new sawblade programme, highlighting sustainability as a big theme.
Special feature highlights included improved dynamic stability; low noise tooth design, and thin kerf sawblades to reduce energy consumption/ increase material yield.
“Tool maintenance is of paramount importance but companies usually think of the machine but then, too late, of the tools,” said Jürgen Köppel, Leitz CEO.
To help, Leitz has microchips in the tools to keep customers up-to-date with their performance and the company is also heavily engaged in training.
At Ligna, Leitz also showed visitors its Profilcut Q Premium “fastest tooling in the industry”, capable of cutting at 120m/min to produce six more windows a day than standard tooling.
Regarding Industry 4.0 and the advent of systems such as Homag’s Tapio cloud-based digital platform, Mr Koppel said an issue for discussion was who the data belonged to.
“Certain legal questions need to be addressed,” said Mr Köppel. “The time is right [for this technology] but the way to implement it still needs some work.”
Germany’s Mechanical Engineering Industry Association is currently examining this with the intention of reaching a consensus.
Materials handling was a solid focus at Ligna’s outside showground, with Combilift, Bulmer and Hubtex all showcasing vehicles. Combilift had 17 products on display – its biggest-ever showing at Ligna, with MD Martin McVicar clearly delighted at enquiries.
The compact Combi-MR is a new addition developed for the North American market. It features a standing position for the operator, helpful where operators regularly leave the vehicle such as in warehouse picking roles.
It has high levels of protection with side entry and full visibility to see around the mast.
