New thematic layout and digitalisation at this year’s LIGNA

“Given the current business climate in the wood industry, the growing wave of digitalisation and our revamped thematic layout, we are looking forward to a very successful LIGNA this year,” commented Christian Pfeiffer, Global Director LIGNA and Woodworking Events at Deutsche Messe. “The show has experienced the first significant rise in booked space in several years, and we have already outstripped the final figures for the most recent stating of LIGNA, in 2015.”

He continued: “LIGNA 2017 will occupy 128,000 square metres (over 1,377,700 sq. ft.) of display space. And it will profile products and solutions in the display categories of Tools and Machinery for Custom and Mass Production, Surface Technology, Wood Based Panel Production, Sawmill Technology, Energy from Wood, Machine Components and Automation Technology, and Forestry Technology – all intelligently grouped in a new technology-centric layout. The revamped layout has been extremely well received by our exhibitors and has triggered a significant upswing in rented space.”

“A key change in 2017 is that the hall layout is more in keeping with the technological convergence between small woodworking workshops and large industrial processors,” explained Pfeiffer. “Visitors can expect a wealth of innovations and a world-unique lineup of machines and complex plant and equipment, including live demonstrations. There’s also a supporting program of conferences and forums in which luminaries of the woodworking and timber processing industries will present and debate future-defining trends,” he added.

LIGNA’s organisers, Deutsche Messe and the German Woodworking Machinery Manufacturers’ Association, owe their upbeat mood to the dynamism of the technology landscape, as expressed in the show’s new layout, the upswing experienced by the wood industry in many parts of the world and, not least, the growing tide of digitalisation. Integrated manufacturing and digitalisation are transforming the machines, systems and tools used in the woodworking and timber processing industries.

Industry 4.0, the Internet of Things, Smart Factory: These are the keynote themes of LIGNA 2017. They are the names and faces of a new generation of technologies that will empower users of all types to achieve greater efficiency and productivity and become more competitive.

Held in Hannover, Germany, LIGNA will map out the digitalisation road ahead in all sectors of the wood industry and present the latest technology milestones along the way.