The spectrum ranges from augmented reality-based learning and teaching tools to system development for the use of driverless transport robots.

LIGNA.Campus: The next gGeneration meets in Hall 11

The LIGNA.Campus at the world marketplace for the wood industry will be a visitor magnet for anyone with big plans in the woodworking and wood processing sectors. "With LIGNA.Campus 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," says Stephanie Wagner, Head of LIGNA at Deutsche Messe AG. "Especially in times when major upheavals are taking place and everything is being put to the test, it is vital to focus on research and development, and above all on training and continuing education. The LIGNA.Campus therefore holds the tools for the challenging path to a more sustainable future for the industry."

Food for thought

For example, the University of Applied Forest Sciences Rottenburg will be addressing concepts for the material use of hardwood at its booth D76 in Hall 11 and discussing with LIGNA.Campus participants the question of what sustainable ways there are to utilize hardwood. To this end, the university will be providing 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.

Fascinating Topics for further Education

At its booth E62 in Hall 11, the Fachschule Holztechnik Melle will inspire visitors with two fascinating topics for further education: AR technology and smart factories. In a project with the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) and the "AdEPT" team, an augmented reality-based learning and teaching tool for in-company training and continuing education was created. Now that the developed software has been tested at Melle University of Applied Sciences, visitors to LIGNA 2023 can try out this cutting-edge technology and experience how anyone can use the application in a wide variety of ways in their day-to-day work.

The second advanced training topic - the Smart Factory - is about the buzzword "Industry 4.0" and about designing production so smartly that batch size one and the fulfillment of individual customer wishes become possible. In the development of this learning carrier with the name sfm, the aim was to show that wood technology is not limited to the topics of wood and wood materials, but that the technology should be seen and understood across all professions. Therefore, not only basic knowledge is deepened at the FH Melle, but also areas of activity are expanded.

Learning through demanding Challenges

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 is addressing at its LIGNA.Campus booth F77. The goal is a production-ready fleet management system for SMEs that combines individual configuration, simulation and optimization in a virtualized production facility - keyword "digital twin" - as well as the operational use of driverless transport robots in a smart factory. Visitors to the LIGNA.Campus will be 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.

More than a dozen educational Institutions participating with a wide Range of Offerings

In addition to the University of Applied Forest Sciences Rottenburg, the Melle School of Wood Technology and the Rosenheim Technical University, the educational institutions presenting their wide range of training and continuing education courses at LIGNA.Campus will include Berufsakademie Holztechnik Melle, Fachhochschule Salzburg, College of Design and Technology Flensburg, Hildesheimer Fachschulen für Holztechnik & Gestaltung, HAWK University of Applied Sciences and Art Hildesheim/Holzminden/Göttingen, Eberswalde University of Sustainable Development Faculty of Wood Engineering, Holzfachschule Bad Wildungen, Lehrinstitut Rosenheim e. V., staatl. Fachschule für Holztechnik Rosenheim, Gemeinnütziges Berufsförderungswerk Biberach, Muthesius University of Fine Arts and Design Kiel, Technische Hochschule Ostwestfalen-Lippe Fachbereich Produktions- und Holztechnik and Johann Heinrich von Thünen Institute Federal Research Institute for Rural Areas, Forestry and Fisheries Braunschweig.

About LIGNA

The world’s leading trade fair for the woodworking and wood processing industry is jointly organized by Deutsche Messe and VDMA Woodworking Machinery. It showcases the entire range of products and services for the primary and secondary industries – tools, machines and systems for custom and mass production, surface technology, wood-based panel production, sawmill technology, energy from wood, machine components and automation technology, as well as machines and systems for forestry, round wood and sawn wood production.