Ponsse took part in the Demo Forest trade fair held in Bert­rix, Bel­gium, on 28–29 July. On display at the fair were Ponsse’s fire­figh­ting equip­ment and the HH360 har­ves­ter head rota­tor, both of which won the main Inno­va­tion Award.

Ponsse’s fire­figh­ting equip­ment and HH360 rota­tor were fea­tu­red on the Inno­va­tion Path, for which the event orga­ni­sers, with the French FCBA Tech­no­lo­gical Ins­ti­tute (Ins­ti­tut Tech­no­lo­gique FCBA), had selec­ted nine inno­va­tive devices.  

First launc­hed by Ponsse in 2020 and deve­lo­ped in coo­pe­ra­tion with fire safety pro­fes­sio­nals, the fire­figh­ting equip­ment fea­tu­res a 10,000-litre water tank that can be fil­led from natu­ral water sources using its own pump or directly from a fire engine tank. The water can­non has a range of 47 met­res and a tur­ning radius of 360 degrees.    

The HH360 rota­tor allows the unre­stric­ted rota­tion of the har­ves­ter head. The rota­ting har­ves­ter head speeds up the hand­ling of stems, makes the forest mac­hine operator’s job easier and reduces hose damage. 

In recent years, severe wild­fi­res and forest fires in Europe have caused widespread damage to nature, live­li­hoods and local com­mu­ni­ties. At the same time, the impor­tance of effec­tive fire pro­tec­tion has inc­rea­sed. Inte­rest in fire pro­tec­tion solu­tions has inc­rea­sed in Europe, and the fair gave Ponsse’s fire­figh­ting equip­ment wide visi­bi­lity in the Bel­gian main­stream media.   

“We would like to thank the orga­ni­sers of the Demo Forest event for the inno­va­tion award: it’s a plea­sure to note that Ponsse’s tech­no­logy solu­tions are seen as use­ful when func­tio­nal solu­tions are requi­red not only for har­ves­ting but also for forest-rela­ted chal­len­ges. Alt­hough the under­lying forest and wild­fi­res are a serious issue, it’s posi­tive to see that there is also discus­sion on how to deve­lop fire pro­tec­tion pre­pa­red­ness. Inte­rest in our fire­figh­ting equip­ment is growing across Europe” says Timo Savor­nin, Area Mar­ke­ting and Com­mu­nica­tions Mana­ger for Europe at Ponsse. 

Demo Forest is one of Europe’s lar­gest forest mac­hi­nery and fore­stry demon­stra­tion events, where equip­ment is showca­sed in real wor­king con­di­tions. The 2026 fair att­rac­ted a total of 20,000 visi­tors over two days, mainly from Bel­gium, France, Ger­many and the Bene­lux count­ries. The num­ber of visi­tors inc­rea­sed by 15% from the pre­vious fair.