Your challenges. Our solutions.

This year’s LIGNA appearance by German machine and plant manufacturer DIEFFENBACHER is all about helping its customers and partners tackle the varied challenges facing the wood-based panels industry worldwide. At booth C41 in hall 26, the DIEFFENBACHER team will highlight solutions that address five of the industry’s toughest challenges: raw material supply, shortage of skilled workers, cost pressures, energy supply and environmental impact.

“Over the past two years since LIGNA 2023, we’ve listened intently to what our partners are saying about their challenges in this era of economic and political turbulence and disruption,” says Stefan Zipf, Head of the Wood Business Unit at DIEFFENBACHER. “At LIGNA 2025, we’ll present our solutions—both brand new and tried-and-tested, as well as those that have undergone significant further development—to meet these challenges,” he adds.

One of these challenges is raw material supply, especially fresh wood availability. At LIGNA, DIEFFENBACHER will introduce its pioneering Fiber2Fiber process for recycling MDF, HDF, THDF and wood fiber insulation boards, including post-consumer material. This technology was developed as part of the EU-funded research project EcoReFibre. The company will also showcase its long-established and proven complete waste wood recycling plants for particleboard production and its Waste2Product solutions for manufacturing products from non-wood production residues and waste materials.

The shortage of skilled workers is another challenge facing the wood-based panels industry. Simplifying the control and optimization of production plants through digitalization and automation offers help. DIEFFENBACHER’s AI-based digital platform EVORIS combats the shortage of experienced and qualified workers by intelligently supporting plant personnel in their daily tasks. As for automation solutions, the MAIER Knife Ring Maintenance Center that sharpens knife rings fully automatically is just one example of what’s available from DIEFFENBACHER.

Cost pressures aren’t new but are more intense than ever. DIEFFENBACHER’s advanced technologies help to reduce production costs. EVORIS plays a major role here, as plant digitalization offers enormous cost savings potential. In addition, DIEFFENBACHER has many proven solutions in its portfolio for reducing energy and raw material consumption and costs. These include the new Forming Station PB, the EVOjet M 2.0, the EVOscreen and the new Wireless STS storage system, to name just a few.

Another significant challenge closely linked to costs is energy supply. DIEFFENBACHER Energy from Bludenz, Austria, will present at LIGNA its bubbling fluidized-bed firing systems for generating energy from low-cost and sustainable refuse-derived fuels (RDF), i.e., fuels made from various types of waste. DIEFFENBACHER’s new Belt Dryer is an outstanding example of the company’s wide range of low-energy-consumption solutions. It operates at low infeed temperatures and can use low calorific energy, e.g., from cogeneration or other plant components.

Lower energy consumption also significantly impacts another challenge: the environmental impact of the wood-based panels industry. Reducing a plant’s carbon footprint and making those efforts visible is more important than ever as the costs of CO₂ emissions are rising and consumers increasingly demand sustainably produced products. With DIEFFENBACHER’s online carbon footprint calculation and reporting integrated into EVORIS, manufacturers can calculate the carbon footprint per cubic meter of their produced wood-based panels. DIEFFENBACHER Energy’s sustainable energy generation technologies are another great way to improve environmental performance.

“In addition to these solutions, we’ll also focus on our new Lifetime Service approach,” says Zipf. “Visitors to LIGNA will get a first glimpse of our new customer portal, an advanced solution to support their daily processes,” he explains. The DIEFFENBACHER Lifetime Service team will also feature its “One Face to the Customer” approach and expanded global service network with extended spare parts inventories and new offices and stronger teams in Southeast Asia and Latin America.

“So much is going on in the world right now. However, when we consider the challenges we’ve conquered together with our partners and are still mastering today, I’m nevertheless optimistic about the future,” Zipf sums up. “Let’s spend five great days in Hannover, build on existing partnerships, find new common ground and tackle these challenges together. The entire DIEFFENBACHER team is ready and looking forward to it,” he concludes.