Ingo Horsthemke
With PUR adhesives gaining momentum across North American woodworking, IWF Atlanta 2026 provided a timely platform to discuss the technology’s growing role. Apratim Ghoshal, Editor-in-Chief of Wood & Panel USA, spoke with Ingo Horsthemke, Vice President Global Marketing of Jowat about the company’s expanded U.S. adhesive production, AI-enabled manufacturing and close collaboration with machinery partners. The conversation also examines how Jowat is responding to supply-chain challenges while delivering integrated adhesive and machine solutions for evolving production needs.
WPU: How is the show going? What about the visitors on the show floor?
Ingo: IWF for us is always very important, so it’s always marked in our calendars. We’ve been going to this exhibition for decades, I would say. So for us, it’s the number one show exhibition in North America for the woodworking industry.
WPU: I heard there is a very new thing happening in the USA for your art, and you were exhibiting here. Can you tell me more about that?
Ingo: Yeah, what we see, I mean, for years it was a trend, but nowadays it’s more than a trend. This whole topic of PUR, so polyurethane hot melt adhesives, is kicking off right now. We see that for edge banding, we see that for flat lamination, profile wrapping. And yeah, the good part or the good message for our customers is that we now are able to make those PR products in our facility in High Point, North Carolina, where we have increased our production capacity to make PR in the U.S.
WPU: Well, how is the company using AI to improve the production while maintaining the sustainability standards?
Ingo: AI in production is used in different single details, let’s say. So it’s not that that is one big topic that we have, but optimizing production details, production control, things like that. That is very useful just to analyze data in a good manner, and that’s very helpful for us.
WPU: Did you face any challenge due to this political and economic condition? And if you did, so how could you? You know, how did you overcome those challenges?
Ingo: Yeah, I mean, we’re a global company in terms of our sales organizations. We do have twenty – six organizations globally nowadays. Six out of those twenty – six organizations are production sites for us. So, Jovat is producing. Adhesives in the Americas, in Europe, in Asia Pacific, and that gives us flexibility. That gives us flexibility in those times that we have right now. That is a challenge here and there for the supply chain. Yes, but having this flexibility to give different answers or possibilities, options to our customers. That’s yeah. That’s what we do.
WPU: I have seen almost many customers, many partners you have on this IWF show floor. And the woodworking industry is evolving. So, how do you, your innovation, are planning to launch to meet the evolving woodworking trends.
Ingo: Um, an adhesive is always a product. I mean, adhesive means two materials that are bonded together, but then of course we need a machine doing that job. So, an adhesive without a process, without a machine, is nothing. So, working with our partners, especially in the machine industry, is very very important for us. Yeah, and that is something that we are doing here on IWF. We do have a lot of partners that are showcasing our adhesives on their machines in their processes, and that again is a big, big advantage for customers to get that package adhesive material machine in a running and adjusted process.