ABB robot creating sustainable furniture
From waste to furniture
Sep 14, 2022 — With an innovative adaption an ABB robot is making designer furniture from what would otherwise be waste material.A staggering 640,000 tons of fishing nets are dumped into the sea every year. An additional 150 million tonnes of garbage floats in the world’s oceans.
In a pioneering project, Swedish sustainable design house Sculptur is turning the discarded nets and plastic waste into furniture using a specially adapted robot from ABB. The industrial robot functions as an advanced 3D-printer.
Because the robot can apply the injection molding of the plastics from any angle, it is far superior to conventional 3D-printers and helps save around 50 percent of the required base materials. ABB's simulation and offline programming software RobotStudio, offering a complete digital twin of physical assets, and a newly developed add-on for 3D-printing, ensure that the printing robot can be programed in just a few minutes. A complete designer piece can be manufactured in less than two hours.
Sculptur and ABB share the same philosophy that by using recycled products and cutting-edge technology they can together make the world a better, more sustainable place.
