Ligna 2015 closed its doors to ringing endorsements from visitors, exhibitors and organisers alike.
The world’s largest technology fair for the timber and forestry industries at Hannover attracted 96,000 visitors, including approximately 40,000 from outside Germany (2013: 32,800), according to organisers Deutsche Messe.
Some 1,567 exhibitors showcased their leading-edge solutions, technologies and innovative production equipment on over 120,000m2 of display space.
Jochen Köckler, the Deutsche Messe managing board member in charge of LIGNA, said the outstanding success of the event cemented its leading status worldwide.
"This year’s LIGNA struck a chord among exhibitors and visitors – a chord embodying three resounding notes: outstanding international participation, impressive innovation and a further increase in top executive attendance," remarked Mr Köckler.
Wolfgang Pöschl, CEO of Weinig and chairman of the German Woodworking Machinery Manufacturers’ Association, said the show had more than met the association’s expectations.
"This LIGNA has more than met our expectations, which were high to begin with," he said.
"Once again it has generated even more momentum in an already positive market environment, and demonstrated the potential that new technologies hold for everyone in the wood industry. This is precisely what our customers from around the world expect from their flagship fair."
Top visitor nations were Austria, France, Italy, the US, UK, Russia, Belgium, Poland, Sweden, China and Brazil.
TTJ received mixed reports about the level of UK and Ireland visitors attending Ligna, but one thing was clear – the UK timber companies attending had specific projects in mind and money to spend.
Attendance from Asia was up considerably, from 2,800 in 2013 to 4,700 in 2015. An upsurge of 86% was noted for the Near and Middle East.
The show attracted 2,800 visitors from South and Central America, thus topping the 2013 figure (1,700) by a wide margin. Deutsche Messe estimated more than 25% of visitors had planned to place orders at Ligna or had already done so beforehand.
Show news
JJ Smith was one of a handful of UK companies to exhibit.
It demonstrated a Mobi One assembly station for timber frame wall elements.
Companies from over 20 countries visited the stand and showed interest in the machine, and director Martin Smith was delighted with the numbers and quality of the enquiries, hailing the show as a great success.
Orders placed at the show for several machines including a Stromab CT600 programmable push fed cross cut saw for straight or angled cutting and also the new Stromab Matrix FAST high speed push fed cross cut saw.
Another British stalwart exhibitor at Ligna was Stenner UK, which exhibited the latest design for the MHS10 horizontal band resaw, including a non-tilting overhead feedworks and a setting system that controls the height and angles of the saws at the touch of a single button. Also featured was the relatively new spray lubrication system for the bandsaws and pulleys.
MHS10s have been sold to Thomson Sawmills and both Brian and Jamie Thomson visited the stand to give the machine the "once over". The contract covers a total of nine Stenner saw units and is part of a major investment at the Norwich site.
Also on display was the ST100R, the latest in the range of single stand-alone 36" resaws. Several orders were secured on the stand and, with over 100 recorded enquiries, the Stenner team is hopeful of signing off further business in the next two to three weeks. Primultini and Bongioanni exhibited together following the acquisition of the latter by Primultini.
"We want to make it clear that a priority of our acquisition is the business continuity of Bongioanni, the preservation of its story and competence, while optimizing operations and leveraging all synergies," said Lorenzo Primultini, group president.
He said the combination of both companies allows the group to supply turnkey sawmill plants, in every processing stage for logs (cutting, debarking, measuring, sorting, handling and orienting) and boards (cutting, trimming, sorting, stacking, strapping and packaging).
Products on display included a variable axis carriage by Bongioanni, a shaping debarking machine by Pribo, a two-spindle multiple ripsaw model "MSA" by Primultini and a numerical control levelling machine for wood band saw blades type "Mecomat" produced by Mec-Legno.
Sawmiller machinery manufacturer Brödbaek this year focused on secondary processing operations, exhibiting two units of a high capacity line for re-sawing and stacking of boards.
The company’s marketing manager Claus Hesel said visitors were very "focused" and were well prepared, asking detailed questions for projects they had in mind.
Brodbaek reports good order levels in the UK and Ireland, with BSW Timber, Woodfab and Thomson Sawmills among recent orders.
It has completed a promotional film on its projects at Woodfab and Drenagh Sawmills.
Staying with sawmilling, Linck’s new feature was the Compact Machining Centre to convert logs in one working process into four-sided cants. Two cutterhead units are used – the first units feature heads arranged one above the other for generating the horizontal faces, while the second unit is rotated by 90-degrees relative to the first one and generates the vertical faces.
Meanwhile at fellow German company EWD, the new feature was the ZE2 align and infeed system with top-mounted skewing frame and top activated roller pairs, allowing optimum adaption to all kinds of logs and two-sided cant infeed systems in sawmills, as well as easy deflection of bark and broken lumber and ease of maintenance.
True shape scanning allows log rotation to the best log orientation. Benefits include increasing yields by sawing of logs and cants with asymmetric cutting patterns.
Söderhamn Eriksson’s appearance at this year’s Ligna follows shortly after its acquisition by USNR, which sees lots of new opportunities to strengthen both companies as a result of a combination in certain markets.
It had a Catech super fast edging line as its prime exhibit. The machine features intelligent board separation with automatic camera surveillance, top and bottom transverse four edge scanning and board positioning during the acceleration towards the edger.
Further processing
SCM’s Smart Manufacturing Cells, for furniture production and for door and window frames, were a strong feature of the group’s presence at Ligna 2015. These solutions are increasingly important for companies wanting greater production flexibility and solutions that can easily adapt to changing market demands.
The Routech Oikos machining centre with six interpolating axes represented a Ligna first according to SCM, while visitors were able to test new software in a special workstation.
The new SCM Accord 25 fx, a five-axis door and window frame machining centre, is targeted at small and medium-sized companies.
SCM said the Accord 25 fx could produce a wide variety of products and components thanks to increased machining dimensions and 44 tools always available on the machine.
The new SCM patented "ProSpeed" system with horizontal photocells and new bumpers on the mobile protection is designed to combine maximum accessibility to the work table and safety for the operator in the work piece loading/unloading operations.
Meanwhile, Italian sawing specialist Salvador launched new software for the Superpush 200, which the company says it as easy to use as a smartphone, featuring a website-like graphic and a learning mechanism assisted by images and clear messages.
The import and export of data will be easier and statistics will be available, which will provide the actual cost of each job.
Moving on to Weinig, its huge stand saw demonstrations of some old favourites – including the Conturex CNC window production machine and Cube planing unit.
New features included the next generation of the UniPin gluing and dowel inserting machine, which has a daily capacity of 1,120 dowels with 20 windows (for double-leaf windows with a central pillar).
Weinig also introduced its "block gluing" with butt joints concept for processing of central layers, which it says is more reliable and less expensive than conventional processes. A range of sawn timber dimensions can be used with the same end product.
The system can be used for shafts for timber construction, cross-laminated timber lamellae and even door frame blanks.
Timber frame production machinery manufacturer Weinmann was celebrating its 30th anniversary.
Making its Ligna debut was the Weinmann WBZ 160 powerSIX.
This machine has a newly developed underfloor unit enabling a greater variety of parts to be produced.
Most processing steps required are performed from all six sides without any tilting operation – so classic block house joints can be created, with blocking grooves and dovetail connections on both sides produced quickly and easily on purlins and ridge beams.
Weinmann says benefits include higher precision, increased processing speed and simpler handling.
Also on the timber construction front, Hundegger showcased its automatic cutting machine TURBO Drive which has a saw blade able to move below the zero line and to a 90-degree angle for straight, angled or bevel cutting.
In addition, the machine can also perform drilling and milling functions, making it an "all-rounder".
Materials Handling
The outside display area saw several forklift, sideloader and multi-directional truck manufacturers exhibiting, including Combilift, Bulmor and Hubtex.
Combilift showed around 15 models and offered its customary glass of Guinness to visitors.
For the first time at Ligna, the Combi-SC straddle carrier – Combilift’s largest capacity model – was demonstrated.
The Combi-SC, which is aimed at companies looking for larger lifting capacities, was initially developed for container handling. But it is being used more and more by manufacturers of modular and prefabricated structures for the cost effective and space saving handling of their oversized loads.
Benefits of the Combi-SC, with capacities from 20t to 80t, include a light unladen weight and low ground pressure compared with conventional heavy handling forklifts, reach stackers or mobile cranes.
This enables operation on poor and semi-rough terrain without the need for costly investment on ground resurfacing or improvement.
Meanwhile, since the last Ligna, Combilift has fitted the entire four-wheel sideloader range with Deutz TCD 3.6L industrial engines as standard to meet the Tier 4 Interim regulations to ensure reduced fuel consumption and cleaner emissions.
Bulmor exhibited its DQ80 prototype which it has been testing. Its engine also meets the latest exhaust emission targets and needs no diesel particulate filters. A new cabin is designed for more operator comfort.
The company reported a huge growth in electric sideloaders – saying the technology is cleaner while also being easier for maintenance.
Wood industry summit
New for 2015 was the Wood Industry Summit, featuring discussion and presentations on the latest technology for key players in forestry and the timber trade, forest owners, timber suppliers and timber processing companies.
Finnish firm Ponsse reported receiving outstanding leads from Ukraine, Russia, China and Brazil.
"The Wood Industry Summit enabled us to enhance and expand our network of international leads across the board," said Tuomo Moilanen, of Ponsse Plc.
Exhibitors and trade visitors used the forum – which attracted international participants from industry, research and government – as a valuable source of leads for project deals in high-growth markets.
Ligna – new changes for 2017
The next ligna, which runs from May 22-26, 2017, will feature a revamped, more visitor-centric layout of themes.
The new structure reflects today’s LIGNA visitors’ work situations more accurately – there is no longer a clear demarcation between skilled trade and industrial-scale operations, according to Deutsche Messe.
The show organiser said the choice of machinery is no longer driven by size or scale and the differentiation between solid wood and wood based panels has lost relevance in many cases.
The majority of exhibitors of solid wood processing machines will be located in Hall 27, adjacent to the sawmill technology exhibits in Hall 25. The closely related Timber Construction displays will also be right next door – in Hall 13.
