Hannover. Surface Technology is one of seven main display categories at this year’s LIGNA. Held from 27 to 31 May, the show will feature more than 1,500 exhibitors from 50 nations, who collectively will occupy over 130,000 square meters (1.4 million sq. ft.) of net display space. More than 130 of these exhibitors will be running showcases in the Surface Technology section of the show, which occupies Halls 16 and 17 and parts of Hall 15.
Increasingly, today’s customers are looking for personalized products that are precisely tailored their requirements and tastes. It is a trend that encompasses all kinds of products, whether customized city bikes, personalized sports shoes or exclusive one-off handbags. This growing customer demand for individualization and uniqueness is also making itself felt in the furniture and flooring industries, and manufacturers are rising to the challenge with a growing array of smart Industry 4.0 solutions. One of the main focuses of this trend in the furniture and flooring industries is on surface technology.
The companies profiled below are specialists in surface technology. At LIGNA 2019, they will be showing their solutions at their own stands and presenting them directly to surface tech-minded visitors at the LIGNA.Forum and during the LIGNA Guided Tours.
Paint specialist ADLER (Hall 16, Stand B21) will be presenting its Bluefin Pigmosoft product for flawless matt surface finishes. The product is fingerprint-resistant, and its innovative self-regeneration technology means that unwanted glossy patches simply “heal” and disappear overnight. The secret to it all lies in this new water-based 2-component furniture topcoat’s special raw material technology. Because of its superior resistance to shine, the paint can withstand frequent contact without losing its perfect matt finish. Even if an unsightly shiny patch is created by, say, someone scratching it with their fingernail, the blemish will simply disappear overnight, thanks to the paint’s self-regeneration technology.
AkzoNobel Wood Finishes (Hall 17, Stand D65) will be presenting a new technology that promises to eliminate overspray on edges. It enables more targeted application of 1K, 2K and even UV-cured paints on furniture edges in production-line manufacturing. The technology can spray paint, whether clear or pigmented, onto substrates of any type and of widths ranging from 1 to 50 mm, without any overspray. This means of application saves paint and the cost of cleaning up overspray. The technology also allows precision-control of spray volume, providing additional overspray protection when painting narrow edges, such as on kitchen and bathroom furniture. The paint application process is very fast, supporting production-line throughput rates of up to 100 m/min.
Pressing and surface finishing specialist Robert Bürkle (Hall 17, Stand F19) is doing its part to give furniture manufacturers greater flexibility and scope for product customization. At LIGNA, the company will be unveiling a new roller coating process. The process delivers reduced paint consumption and increased performance. Roller coating is commonly limited to flat work-pieces, but Bürkle has developed a solution that enables it to be used on formed, non-flat furniture parts with four paintable sides and tapered ends. The paint rollers are repositioned by means of servo-motors, and the system enables continuous coating without paint tearing. The process uses an intelligent transport system that feeds multiple work-pieces through the roller-coating machine in parallel while keeping them reliably in the correct position. A multi-axis robot is used to handle the cassette and rotate the work-pieces through 90°.
Cefla Finishing (Hall 17, Stand F45) will be showcasing the latest in 3D digital printing with its new J-PRINT TD single-pass printer. Thanks to its special ink, the printer is a reliable and cost-effective means of embossing positive and negative relief effects on wood and other panels in a single pass. The J-PRINT TD comes preconfigured with one standard position and can be configured for a maximum of two positions. Its graphics software enables it to print high-resolution gray-scale images using the machine’s high-quality print heads. The J-PRINT TD employs a system which circulates the ink through the print heads, thus reducing the frequency of cleaning cycles. With its specially designed ink reservoirs and automatic control of all critical parameters, including temperature, flow and circuit pressure, the printer delivers optimal ink management. The market-leading DOD (Drop on Demand) grey-scale jet technology comes standard on the J-PRINT TD.
The Giardina Group (Hall 16, Stand A12) is using LIGNA to present its “GST ZeroGloss” dryer for liquid surface finishes in the wood and furniture industries. The dryer is an innovation that builds on technologies that are already tried and proven in other industries. It uses excimer UV curing technology to achieve super-matt surface finishes with higher resistance to chemicals and physical abrasion than conventional matt surfaces. It also facilitates excellent paint adhesion to the substrate, which makes the resulting surface highly resistant to damage and extremely easy to clean.
HOMAG (Hall 14, Stand H34) will be at LIGNA with a comprehensive range of surface finishing products and solutions. The lineup includes spray coating machines, various categories of sanding machines, solid-wood planing machines and a range of innovations in lamination. For liquid surface coating, HOMAG will present the latest incarnation of its SPRAYTEQ S-100 spray coating machine for surface, profile and window coating applications. For lamination applications, HOMAG will be showcasing its LAMTEQ F-200 laminating plant, complete with innovative handling system. The company also has sanding covered with its SANDTEQ series, which features solutions for companies of all sizes, from small workshop to large industrial. In terms of product premieres, the showcase will include a high-efficiency, automated four-sided planing solution comprising a MOULDTEQ M-300 molding and planing unit in combination with a return conveyor. HOMAG also has an impressive digital offering, with a range of new apps to make machine operation even easier for users.
Hymmen (Hall 26, Stand F28) will be at LIGNA with Automatic Color Calibration (ACC), a fully integrated inline image optimization system for industrial digital printing. With JUPITER digital printing lines by Hymmen, furniture and flooring manufacturers have long had the ability to reliably print decorative patterns of consistently high quality, but only for 80 percent of commonly used pattern types. Now, with its Automatic Color Calibration (ACC) technology, Hymmen is able to guarantee the same long-term color and production stability for even the most challenging of decorative patterns with highly monochrome palettes. Hymmen is thus a one-stop provider for industrial digital printing, offering both the printing technology itself and a fully automated and integrated inline image optimization system to get the best out of that technology by ensuring that it is optimally calibrated for every production run.
Industrial surface treatment with KLEIBERIT (Hall 15, Stand D14) and its HotCoating technology. Surfaces treated with KLEIBERIT HotCoating have several advantageous properties that are fundamental to a steadily growing range of interior and exterior applications. These properties include extremely strong adhesion to a wide range of materials, the PUR layer’s flexibility, and extreme resistance to alternating climatic conditions (heat, cold, water, UV light) and scratch and chemical resistance.
Makor (Hall 17, Stand H15) will be championing the Industry 4.0 cause at LIGNA with machines that are more flexible, more efficient, easier to operate and feature smarter control technology. Showcase highlights include smart work-pieces with RFID chips that automatically configure the coating plant, automated, robotic paint application systems that enable rapid color changes with reduced paint wastage, and Makor’s partnership with tapio, which integrates tapio software on the machine control panel, thereby allowing remote monitoring of the production process. In terms of specific products, Makor will be showcasing its FLEXI OVEN flexible drying oven; its new ULTRADRY UV curing oven; SLOT GUN, an innovative new edge finishing process; UV PUTTY LINE, a new process for filling imperfections in wood; and a quality control system that detects imperfections in wood.
SAMES KREMLIN (Hall 17, Stand A58) will be showcasing its innovative use of the vortex effect in spray painting. The technology uses special PEEK vortex inserts in the spray nozzle to generate a vortex (helix) in the atomized paint stream. This reduces the velocity of the paint particles, enabling the paint to more effectively reach hollows and cavities in complex-shaped work-pieces. This optimized wrap-around effect reduces the spraying time required, and the finer spay significantly reduces overspray, while the diffuser ensures superior paint atomization, resulting in a larger, softer vortex. The Vortex air shroud accelerates the paint particles in the same manner as an airspray gun, thereby improving the application of stains on wood.
SCM (Hall 13, Stand A48) will be showcasing a comprehensive array of technologies and solutions for surface finishing. At the SCM stand, the focus will be on industrial solutions that can be used to produce a wide range of 3D finishes, including wave designs, hand-smoothed, embossed, saw-cut and wormhole effects, which have the power to spark authentic tactile and visual user experiences. The surface finishing solutions on display at SCM’s Superfici stand (Hall 15, Stand C06) will include anthropomorphic and Cartesian robots for painting panels and fixtures, and an extensive selection of sprayer systems for a wide range of applications and production scales.
Venjakob will be at LIGNA (Hall 16, Stand C22) with its VEN PROFIT solution – a data analysis tool in the form of a dashboard. The solution uncouples factory data capture from control platforms, thereby enabling the data to be stored in local networks or in the cloud. Interface adapters allow the same dashboard to be used with different control platforms and enable the captured data to be displayed and analyzed on different end devices. The dashboard can analyze and present machinery data in various different ways, so that users can, for example, monitor production processes, plan maintenance using predictive methods and use the data for management-level analysis.
At this year’s LIGNA, WINTERSTEIGER (Hall 27, Stand F60) will demonstrate how its TRC Manufactory technology can create authentic rustic-style flooring with genuinely unique, non-repeating visual and tactile characteristics. Rustic-style flooring is ubiquitous and likely here to stay, but genuinely one-off rustic surface finishes are a rarity. Despite the use of natural drying methods, hand-finishing techniques and various other approaches, efforts to manufacture genuinely unique rustic floor planks are all too often foiled by telltale repeating visual and tactile features. The TRC Manufactory system finishes individual floor boards that have been repaired and filled. Each plank is individually scanned, analyzed and processed. The edges of the planks are rounded in irregular patterns, and grain patterns and knots are burnished so that they stand out from the rest of the surface.
For further information on the exhibitors and products at LIGNA 2019, visit https://www.ligna.de/en/expo-program/exhibitors-products/index.xhtml.
LIGNA.Forum
This year’s LIGNA marks the premiere of the LIGNA.FORUM, a presentation forum in Hall 11 that will provide in-depth coverage of the key LIGNA focus themes as well as a series of short presentations on topical issues relevant to the secondary processing sector. The LIGNA.FORUM is organized into theme blocks, including the following: Processing of Plastics and Composites, Smart Surface Technology, Integrated Woodworking – Customized Solutions, Processing of Additively Manufactured Work-Pieces, and Wood Construction (Building with Beech).
Among the participating companies are Barberan, Efi Cretaprint, Ostwestfalen-Lippe University of Applied Sciences, HOMAG Group, Kleiberit Klebchemie Becker, Robert Bürkle, Sames Kremlin, SCM Group, Valresa Coatings and WPR / TAKA.
Attendance is free of charge. The full forum program can be viewed here https://www.ligna.de/en/expo-program/events/ligna.forum/.
“Smart Surface Technology” Guided Tour
LIGNA’s Guided Tours are ideal for visitors wanting to get a fast, efficient overview of the latest and greatest surface technology solutions. Each tour takes its attendees to the stands of participating exhibitors who have been specially selected for their relevance to the tour theme. This particular tour covers a wide range of surface finishing technologies and processes as well as scanning and quality assurance systems. Among the stops on this year’s “Smart Surface Technology” Guided Tour will be the stands of CEFLA, HOMAG Group, Klebchemie M.G. Becker, Makor, Robert Bürkle and SCM Group. To register for the tour, visit www.ligna.de/en/tours.
About LIGNA
LIGNA is the world’s leading trade fair for woodworking and wood processing plant, machinery and tools. It showcases ideas and solutions across the entire wood value chain, from forestry technology and wood-based panel production to surface technology, right through to plant and machinery for the furniture industry and the woodworking trades. Staged every two years in Hannover, Germany, LIGNA will next be held from 27 to 31 May 2019. The 2019 show is dedicated to the keynote themes of “Integrated Woodworking – Customized Solutions”, “Smart Surface Technologies” and “Access to Resources and Technology”. Other events in the LIGNA Shows Worldwide series include MEM Industrial in Mexico City and the LIGNA.Conference in China. For further information, visit www.ligna.de/home.
Deutsche Messe AG
As one of the world’s foremost organizers of capital goods trade fairs, Deutsche Messe (Hannover, Germany) stages a rich array of events at venues in Germany and around the globe. With 2017 revenue of 356 million euros, Deutsche Messe ranks among Germany’s top five tradeshow producers. The company’s portfolio features such world-class events as (in alphabetical order): didacta (education), DOMOTEX (carpets and other floor coverings), HANNOVER MESSE (industrial technology), INTERSCHUTZ (fire prevention, disaster relief and safety & security), LABVOLUTION (lab technology) and LIGNA (woodworking and wood processing tools, equipment and machinery). Deutsche Messe also stages trade fairs at other German venues, for example parts2clean (industrial parts cleaning) and SurfaceTechnology (surface treatment). The company also regularly hosts a number of internationally renowned events by third parties, among which are AGRITECHNICA (agricultural machinery) and EuroTier (animal production), both of which are staged by the German Agricultural Society (DLG), EMO (machine tools; staged by the German Machine Tool Builders’ Association, VDW), EuroBLECH (sheet metal working; staged by MackBrooks) and IAA Commercial Vehicles (transport, logistics and mobility; staged by the German Association of the Automotive Industry, VDA). Deutsche Messe’s portfolio also comprises events in Australia, Canada, China, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey and the USA. Among the sectors addressed at these overseas events are Automotive, ICT & Digital Business, Manufacturing & Processing Industries, Energy & Logistics and Metal Processing. With more than 1,200 employees and a network of 58 sales partners, Deutsche Messe is present in more than 100 countries.
