Organisers upbeat on Ligna trade fair in Germany

Ligna, the world’s leading trade fair for machinery, plant and tools for the woodworking and timber processing industries, will be held from May 22 to 26, with 1,500 exhibitors from 49 nations using the show to present a wealth of amazing innovations.
“Given the current business climate in the wood industry, the growing wave of digitalisation and our revamped thematic layout, we are looking forward to a very successful Ligna this year,” said Andreas Gruchow, the Deutsche Messe managing board member responsible for Ligna. “The show has experienced the first significant rise in booked space in several years, and we have already outstripped the final figures for the most recent staging of Ligna, in 2015,” he added.
“Ligna 2017 will occupy 128,000 square metres of display space. And it will profile products and solutions in the display categories of tools and machinery for custom and mass production, surface technology, wood-based panel production, sawmill technology, energy from wood, machine components and automation technology, and forestry technology. 
A key change in 2017 is that the hall layout is more in keeping with the technological convergence between small woodworking workshops and large industrial processors. 
“Visitors can expect a wealth of innovations and a world-unique line-up of machines and sophisticated plant and equipment, including live demonstrations. There’s also a supporting program of conferences and forums in which luminaries of the woodworking and timber processing industries will present and debate future-defining trends,” added Christian Pfeiffer, Deutsche Messe’s global director Ligna and woodworking events.