Pacific Forest Uses Robots to Increase Productivity and Lower Carbon Footprint

A wood processing company based in Singapore, Pacific Forest, has claimed to have improved efficiency and productivity by 200 percent by using ABB’s robots to produce high quality wood products for the building of lifestyle homes and hotel resorts in the French Polynesian islands of Bora Bora and Moorea.

Carpentry skills were transferred to ABB’s multitasking IRB6640 Foundry Robot, by mounting tools on the robot to assist in accurate cutting, machining, drilling and finishing. The robot helped Pacific Forest reduce the amount of work contracted-out, by producing an output equivalent of 20 workers, says the company. The IRB6640 can also achieve more precision and has helped reduced unwanted wood wastage. Precise cutting is also important in managing productivity and costs for high density woods such as Balau and Merbau, which are more expensive and difficult to cut.

The company claimed to be the first in Southeast Asia to use a robot in the wood industry, Managing Director of Pacific Forest, Jason Chan said, “As part of our Gaia-friendly beliefs, we have looked into ways to reduce our impact on the environment. By reducing the amount of wood work processes being contracted-out, we could reduce the number of truck trips between factories, hence reducing our carbon footprint.”

Jason and his team had researched on the capabilities of the robot, and devised a solution of incorporating a CAD to CAM software to work with the robot. A Computer Aided Design (CAD) to Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) software helps to generate the points and path for robot movement, using drawings generated from CAD software. This CAD to CAM conversion significantly reduces programming time. Pacific Forest also developed a breakthrough design of a clamping system for the robot, introducing flexibility and ensuring smooth conversion.

The ABB team helped to train the robotics engineer, and worked very closely with Pacific Forest to overcome technical difficulties, and gave assistance in programming, to ensure smooth operations.

ABB will deliver a second IRB6640 robot, to help Pacific Forest to further increase its productivity. Pacific Forest aims towards full automation in a few years with a total of five robots. As part of the company’s sustainability plan, Pacific Forest is also looking into developing new wood substitute products to replace natural wood.