The construction industry, interior design and the furniture industry are among the players to whom wood as a material has owed growing demand for years. Overcoming a wide variety of fads, the natural material has been able to hold its own time and again through new types of processing.

Current topics and trends in the wood industry are therefore also the focus of LIGNA 2023, the world's leading trade fair for tools, machinery and equipment for woodworking and processing. At this first participation in a trade show with a presence since the pandemic, Heinrich KUPER GmbH from Rietberg will also give trade show visitors in Hanover an impression of how system solutions in wood processing can contribute to the economic efficiency and sustainability of the wood industry.

With their generously dimensioned booth, the East Westphalians are also demonstrating the company's reorientation in recent years from a machine manufacturer to a project-oriented solution provider.

Solutions for the increased demand for sustainable real wood veneers

According to KUPER, the modern and inviting trade fair stand will cover 350 square meters and will be made of precisely those materials that are produced by international companies in the wood, building materials and furniture industries with the help of machines and services from the quality leader in veneer and gluing technology. Here, too, KUPER is geared to current trends, such as the demand for high-quality real wood veneers - which has risen in line with the development of the concept of sustainability. In the field of compound, one of its core competencies, KUPER presents solutions that accompany the entire process. With the KUPER FLI gluing machine, for example, visitors to LIGNA 2023 will experience precise joint gluing for the highest quality demands in the processing of high-quality veneers.

Here, KUPER relies on the potential of digitalization and commits its systems to the concept of Industry 4.0. In addition to the use of a digital camera system for checking the joints in the joint gluing process, the optional basic Industry 4.0 module records all relevant operating and machine data in real time, evaluates it, stores and visualizes it and thus allows optimization of the project-related use of the system as well as the required maintenance and servicing as part of a predictive maintenance strategy.

Live demonstrations in the compound area

KUPER will be demonstrating a further step in the field of compound at LIGNA 2023 in the form of the KUPER ZFS two-knife veneer bundle shear. During operation of the system, trade fair visitors can observe how veneers are precisely cut in the bundle in just a few steps by cutting on both sides with upper and lower knives.

Targeted partner search

KUPER is continuously expanding its position as a partner of the wood industry with a comprehensive range of products and services in target-oriented cooperations. One example of this is the BOXMAKER cutter, the board cutting machine for efficient in-house packaging-on-demand developed in cooperation with Horstmann Maschinenbau GmbH, which will also be presented at LIGNA 2023.

A look into the future of the wood industry

The selection of solutions on show will be rounded off with another glimpse into the future: an industrial robot from FANUC, one of the world's leading manufacturers in factory automation, will demonstrate the precise handling of wood products of different qualities in combination with a special vacuum gripping system.

"Overall, we want our trade show appearance to give an impression of what the future in the wood industry can already look like today and what contribution KUPER can make to it," explains Gerd Meurer, Managing Director of Heinrich KUPER GmbH. "Aspects of digitalization and process automation play a special role here and provide answers to pressing questions such as the shortage of skilled workers or the requirements for sustainable manufacturing."

Focus Topic Green Material Processing