Research and development, as well as education and training, are indispensable on the road to a more sustainable and productive future for woodworking and wood processing.

The LignaCampus format in Hannover provided renowned technical colleges, universities of applied sciences and universities with the ideal platform for their diverse educational offerings and ground-breaking research findings.

The spectrum ranged from augmented reality-based learning and teaching tools to system development for the use of driverless transport robots. It was a visitor magnet for anyone with big plans in the woodworking and wood processing sectors.

“With LignaCampus we are creating a place where the next generation of wood industry professionals can find valuable support and encouragement, and benefit from leading-edge expertise,” said Stephanie Wagner, Head of Ligna at Deutsche Messe AG.

Hardwood applications

The University of Applied Forest Sciences in Rottenburg addressed concepts for the material use of hardwood at its booth and discussed with LignaCampus participants about sustainable ways to utilise hardwood.

The university provided various illustrative scenarios of how chemical wood modification can be used, for example in the structural sector by developing beech cross-laminated timber, in exterior applications by replacing wood preservatives, and in instrument making for guitar fingerboards by substituting tropical woods with native hardwoods.

The Fachschule Holztechnik Melle inspired visitors with two fascinating topics for further education: AR technology and Smart Factory. In a project with the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence an augmented reality-based learning and teaching tool for in-company training and continuing education was created.

Visitors to Ligna 2023 were able try out this cutting-edge technology and experience how one can use the application in a variety of ways in their day-to-day work.

The second advanced training topic, the Smart Factory, was about the buzzword ‘Industry 4.0’ and about designing production so that batch size one and the fulfillment of individual customer wishes become possible.

Fleet management

The aim was to show that wood technology is not limited to the topics of wood and wood materials, and that the technology should be seen and understood across all professions. Therefore, not only is basic knowledge deepened at the FH Melle, but also the areas of activity are expanded.

These expanded areas of activity also include the development of a configurable fleet management system for driverless transport robots, which the Faculty of Wood Technology and Construction at Rosenheim University of Applied Sciences addressed at its LignaCampus booth.

The goal was a production-ready fleet management system for small and medium enterprises that combine individual configuration, simulation and optimisation in a virtualised production facility, “digital twin”, as well as the operational use of driverless transport robots in a smart factory.

Visitors were confronted with challenges that are as demanding as they are entertaining, including the flexible design of production processes, vendor-independent interfaces and self-learning order distribution by the transport system.

Comments