A Show of strength

By the time the world's largest timber and forestry technology fair, Ligna, closed its doors this year, some 96,000 visitors (40,000 from outside Germany) had been through the halls of Hannover Messe. Halls demonstrating wood based panel production technology solutions, whether for primary panel manufacture or downstream processing, evidently enjoyed a busy show and the comments received by WBPI in our meetings with companies were almost universally positive, giving further evidence of better economic times - and visitors attending with money to invest.

Top visitor nations (excluding Germany) were Austria, France, Italy, the US, UK, Russia, Belgium, Poland, Sweden, China and Brazil. Hall 27 was, of course, the destination for those interested in primary panel production technology.

Italy's Imal Pal Group declared itself satisfi ed with this year's event, citing 12 major contracts signed.

It had new solutions in the areas of laboratory equipment and on-the-line quality controls, including the Full Control Blister Classifi er and the CDP700 on-the-line density profi le meter.

Other highlights included the Dynapellet press, which it claims is the largest pellet press in the world, capable of processing up to 12tph, as well as the Cyclops - an 'eye' to detect contaminants in recycled material, plus the SRC Knife Ring Flaker which can process up to 15tph of fl akes. The group has forecast a 15% rise in sales this year compared with 2014.

Germany's Dieffenbacher had extensive news to communicate to visitors, including a large presentation on its CPS+, which the company billed as its most powerful continuous press yet, citing more accuracy, speed, better tolerances and advantages for lightweight boards.

Just before Ligna, Thailand's largest wood based panel manufacturer, Metro, awarded the core package of a particleboard plant to Dieffenbacher, including the CPS+ 265-40.5 press.

Dieffenbacher also presented plant concepts and projects for fast-growing and alternative raw materials, such as bagasse, and has created a new recycling division to develop new application areas, within and outside the wood based panel industry.

It has also signed a cooperation contract with Binos to jointly develop and market new products in the area of forming technology, which includes licensing of components in the Binos windformer for Dieffenbacher particleboard plants.

Further products added to the Dieffenbacher product line include the Formator M and the Spike-Roll Vacuum Former for fi breboard plants.

The Formator consists of the well known Dieffensor in combination with the Binos segmented Scalper.

Meanwhile, scanning systems provider, Electronic Wood Systems (EWS) of Germany, said it had been overwhelmed by the success of the "best Ligna ever", citing an unusual quantity of visitors willing to invest, due to the demand for quality measuring technology and the good world economy.

At the show, EWS introduced significant technical improvements to its control systems and a new spark detection and extinguishing system.

The company says the latter works with 30% less water by using a newly-designed, spring loaded, nozzle (patent pending), while also requiring 50% less cabling for installation.

GreCon presented a colour-coded stand of red, orange and blue. Blue stood for service, orange for control systems and red was for spark detection systems. There was also an 'innovation tunnel', with six ideas to get visitors thinking.

Highlights were many, including its new extinguishing nozzle concept which can adapt the amount of extinguishing water to specific requirements, while it demonstrated the possibility to integrate the fire protection control console in PLC control systems. With the safety information system BS 7 NET, events can be evaluated so that risks can be recognised in time.

Innovations in GreCon's measuring systems included a world premiere of its wood chip separation system ChipInspector, designed to solve the problem of rubber particles mixing with MDF fibres in production. The system sends a combination of low- and high-energy X-rays through the entire raw material flow to reliably distinguish between wood and rubber.

On the sanding front, Steinemann presented two contact drum adjustment and automatic belt oscillation retro-fit packages as options for its Satos sander. Both options are designed to give sanding customers additional possibilities for achieving even better results in panel production.

Steinemann also launched the Quartz Circle loyalty programme for long-standing customers, giving customers commercial advantages in the fields of consumables, spare parts and service.

Hülsemann, which supplies sliding liners for sanders to the likes of Steinemann, was in Hall 27 for the first time. The company, which has supplied graphite and sanding technology to the joinery and furniture industries for more than 25 years, is seeing increased business in the particleboard market - so much so that it "had to be in Hall 27". Hülsemann is currently erecting a new factory building in a €3m development.

Panel plant systems supplier Siempelkamp had a mission statement "Cut your cost!" at Ligna, as it emphasised innovations for reducing costs and saving energy.

In addition to drive technology, glue blending and metering systems, mat formers and pre-heaters, special emphasis was placed on "Industry 4.0" control, with updates to the process control system Prod-IQ.

The Ecodrive system, presented at Ligna for the first time, to power its ContiRoll discharge drums, consists of an energy-efficient electric motor and two-stage gearbox. At full load, Siempelkamp says it can save customers at least 7% on energy compared to the previous drive system.

Siempelkamp reported many visitors from Russia, China, South Africa and Brazil. Roller manufacturer Kelzenberg + Co returned to Ligna after some years of absence.

The company was seeking customers whose particleboard plant roller drums have been operating for some years, offering replacement drums for those that have worn.

Also, Kelzenberg is the original manufacturer of many of the drums in the Auma/Mende presses, for which it offers an on-site service for the renewal of the overlay welding on the heating drums.

"Currently we are processing a few orders in this field, but it is a volatile market," summarised Kelzenberg's Michael Hess.

Endless stainless steel belt manufacturer Berndorf Band once again had a giant image of its Austrian factory looming over its stand, and garden furniture on it, as it sought to make a comfortable space to enhance networking and customer meetings. The factory picture has changed over the years because of extensions to it to add production capacity.

The company reported good contacts from Russia, China and Portugal at the show. Sandvik certainly made a statement at Ligna with its contemporary-looking stand.

The manufacturer of stainless steel belts, press plates and process systems was, as usual, a networking hub. Technology presentations included a rotary scattering machine for decorative surfaces, casting units for solid surfaces, fibre scattering machines and precision scattering systems for bulk materials.

In Hall 26, the big celebration was the 150th anniversary of Anthon, the German manufacturer of automated panel sizing systems, sanding machines, feeding systems and de-stacking equipment, to fully automatic packing lines. A video presentation to a large audience charted the company's illustrious history, starting in 1865 when Wilhelm Anthon was engaged in metal processing. Back then the company had a 40m2 facility. Today it operates from a 35,000m2 factory and is a global supplier.

Meanwhile, log handling and package cross-cut saw manufacturer Holtec exhibited a chain bed conveyor section as an alternative to belt conveyors, with the exhibit already sold to Interspan of Hungary. The customer was due to install it, together with two debarker lines, in Interspan's new OSB woodyard.

A milestone in the latest company history is the enlargement of the Holtec product range by a high-capacity disc chipper for producing wood chips. The system exhibited was due to be supplied to a Russian MDF mill.

Size reduction technology specialist Pallmann announced a partnership with biomass conversion technologies supplier Standard Bio to develop a new bio-refinery concept that will use low-value organic waste as a resource for clean energy, natural fertilisers and animal protein.

The concept is based around the conversion of renewable resources, including wood.

At its heart is a patented high pressure wood press and drying machine, developed by Pallmann and Standard Bio, capable of producing 500m3 of compressed wood per day. Pallmann will develop and build various key pieces of equipment to reduce the dried wood to particulate sizes that can then be converted into briquettes.

Other news from Pallmann included expanded service operations in North America, a new higher-capacity knife ring flaker (type PZSC 16-600) and a new disc chipper, type PHS30/12, which completed the Pallmann portfolio in the upper performance range of 75- 90tph, bone dry.

Veneer industry specialist Grenzebach, which supplies dryers, slicers and stacking systems, had one of the most eye-catching stands at Ligna, with its futuristic Smart Factory concept with intelligent, interconnected solutions between production, warehousing and material handling, through Automated Guided Vehicles G-Pro and SNOX Stellar.

The G-Pro Carry moves beneath a mobile load carrier with the material to be transported. Through a special mechanism it latches onto the load carrier and moves towards the preset destination. SNOX Stellar can automatically load pallets of 400kg to four tonnes - and deposit and transport them for a lifting height of 5m.

Another veneer technology producer, Meinan, which co-exhibited with partner Merritt Machinery from the US, told customers about the Meinan Green Veneer Composer TEC-4. It has been successfully producing this for several years, for easy handling of green veneer strips, thereby solving something known as a difficulty in the veneer sector.

Meanwhile, Belgian-headquartered energy solutions provider Vyncke reported at Ligna that it had recorded three wood based panel industry orders in the first five months of the year. Recent customer projects included Steico, Poland and an OSB producer in Malaysia.

It is co-operating with other players in the wood based panels sector to offer an integrated solution to countries such as Brazil, Chile and Argentina.

In terms of applications for adhesives and surface products, Kleiberit displayed under the motto "Bright Solutions".

Its main focus was HotCoating, with a live demonstration line and Kleiberit experts showing the new fields of application which this technology now covers, from classic and highly economical surface finishing to furniture components.

This included seamless design of surface/ edge transitions in combination with digital printing and subsequent shaping, DesignEdge, or applications for exterior facades.

A sample immersed in water on the stand was intended to demonstrate the durability of the system.

Hymmen received more than 200 qualified leads at Ligna, from customers hailing from Europe, North and South America, Russia, Australia and Asia.

Instead of live performances, Hymmen proved its technological skills with videos of machinery and plants at its customers' production sites, including industrial digital printing lines, double-belt presses, short-cycle presses, multi-opening presses, liquid coating lines and the calender coating inert (CCI) technology. Samples of end products showed how Hymmen machines could perform, with neo-design flooring from Classen covering the whole presentation area.

Great interest was shown in Hymmen's latest digital printing and double-belt pressing technology, which can produce extra-thin laminate of less than 0.1mm thickness.

Also shown was digital printing technology for printing on a width of 2100mm in a single pass.

Huntsman was once again promoting its I-Bond and Rubinate MDI resins for the composite wood products (CWP) industry.

"We've exhibited at Ligna for many years and over time have seen interest in MDI rise steadily," said Bart Singulé, commercial manager for CWP in Europe, Africa, India and the Middle East (EAIME).

"This is unsurprising when you consider the far-reaching benefits of the technology: No-added formaldehyde solutions, improved performance, and reduced costs per cubic metre, make MDI an increasingly popular choice."

South American chemicals company Isogama was making its Ligna debut, hoping to create attention for its wax emulsion formaldehyde scavengers Humocer 100 FS Wax Emulsion. Isogama, the second biggest exporter of wax emulsion in South America, described Europe as a new market for the company.

Flame retardant solutions provider Polychimique came to Ligna on the back of a phenomenally successful 2014, which saw sales rise 52%, thanks to securing some big new customers, though it is expecting lower growth levels in 2015.

"2014 was a boom year, but we hope for a stable increase in the years to come, of 5-10% a year," it said.

Polychimique has a strong representation in the eastern European MDF sector.

Last, but not least, Greece-based Chimar Hellas SA said demand for environmentallyfriendly binder/resin products continues. It was telling visitors about its amino and phenolic resins, lignin-based resins, NAF binders and other additives, including MDI hardener, vapour catalyst for amino resins, accelerator for coldsetting phenolics and oil-repellent additive for laminates.