LIGNA 2023 will pay attention to prefabricated solutions as timber house construction has gained massive market share over conventional construction methods in recent years.
As a natural and renewable raw material, wood ensures a lower CO2 impact during the production and construction of timber houses than other building materials. In addition, timber houses are becoming increasingly cost-efficient — a trend that can be further enhanced by optimizing prefabrication processes.
This is because the prefabrication of wall and ceiling elements including doors and windows, complete roof trusses, stairs and much more, which can be pre-assembled under controlled conditions, helps achieve higher quality as well as faster construction times in timber construction.
For example, cross laminated timber (CLT) has become increasingly popular in recent years. Demand for CLT is expected to continue to increase in the future, which could result in growth of more than 30% for CLT lines in the coming years.
Darko Zimbakov, executive vice-president at WEINMANN, the company responsible for the Construction Elements Solutions division in HOMAG, explained the solutions his company will be proposing at LIGNA 2023 to help users around the world get started in sustainable housing and building production:
“Only industrial prefabrication and the intelligent combination of sustainable materials such as wood will make it possible to meet climate targets and sustainability at the same time as demand increases. In addition, standardised processes provide the basis for quality assurance, inspection and approval time reductions, and shorter construction times.
“WEINMANN covers the entire process chain and, through the consulting services of Schuler Consulting, also enables customers and investors in regions where timber house construction still plays a subordinate role to enter the sustainable housing and building production.”
‘Prefab Building Processes’
Under the focus topic of ‘Prefab Building Processes’, visitors will be able to experience the entire prefabrication process, from planning to machining and processing to logistics in the plant, as well as to and on the construction site.
The topic will address how the individual process steps in prefabrication can be harmonised with current trends in wood construction — for example, elementisation and standardisation, multi-storey wood construction, hybrid buildings, modular buildings and serial construction.
For example, Swedish company Randek will be showcasing simple machines for use on construction sites and complex systems with robotic elements for large production plants.
German company Reichenbacher Hamuel will also be demonstrating its specialism in computerised numerical control (CNC) machining of complete wall and ceiling elements helps construction companies save time and thus costs, while improving the quality of their work.
Hybrid Guided Tours in German and English will provide special interest groups with the right contacts at LIGNA 2023. There are also presentations on the LIGNA.Stage, with current lighthouse projects, best-practice examples from exhibitors, IT topics and the latest research findings.
Finally, there will be the German Timber Construction Award, organised by Holzbau Deutschland and held under the patronage of the German Federal Minister of Construction.
