Selfridges on Oxford Street in London has an ABB robot that prints designer furniture in 3D. The robot creates things with recycled plastics from Parley for the Oceans. Parley collects marine plastic litter and fishing gear from islands, towns, and coastlines to make materials.
ABB, Selfridges, Parley for the Oceans and Nagami, a design brand, collaborated on the exhibit. An ABB IRB 6700 industrial robotic arm is hard at work in the window and will be there throughout the month of April. Customers can choose and modify things on a tablet inside the store. Nagami’s plastic extruder is then used to print the object on site.
While greater variety is beneficial to customers, it comes at a cost to the environment, as products and packaging are often abandoned without paying attention to where they end up or whether they are recycled, according to Marc Segura, president of the robotics division. from ABB. We help emphasize the crucial contribution of robots in building sustainable manufacturing processes central to a circular economy by reusing plastic from the world’s seas to print designer products.
The demo will also serve as an opportunity for ABB to demonstrate the potential of robotics to engage customers and enhance the shopping experience. ABB has other demonstrations, such as one at a Solebox store in Berlin. Customers can watch an ABB picking robot select shoes on a screen while they are in the store. Even the robot will adjust its size to suit your needs.
According to Segura, robots are increasingly used to attract customers back to the high street. We believe three main trends will influence future adoption: micro-fulfillment, where in-store robots are used to enable order fulfillment and delivery; personalization, where a robot builds a product to a customer’s specific requirements, with the option of automatic personalization, where data on past buying habits is used to offer new options; and ‘retail entertainment’, in which the robot is used as part of an interactive display or show to inform.
ABB’s Berlin demo falls into the ‘retail entertainment’ category, while its London demo falls into the ‘customization’ area. ABB’s demo in China demonstrates how robots can help with micro-fulfillment in retailers. A robot selects Huawei devices and places them in a collection drawer for the consumer to pick up. The consumer cannot see the robot in action, but it allows staff to focus on more customer-oriented tasks. His demonstration in China, where an ABB FlexBuffer is used in a Huawei kiosk, exemplifies how robots can help with micro-compliance in enterprises.
ABB has partnered with Zume, a California-based global supplier of compostable packaging, on another sustainability project. Over the next five years, ABB will build more than 1,000 molded fiber production cells (MFCs) at Zume customer sites around the world, with up to 2,000 robots. Zume will be able to produce sustainable packaging on a global scale thanks to ABB’s robotic cells. The compostable packaging manufacturer aims to limit the use of single-use plastics.
Zume is a low-energy, low-emission, low-waste replacement for single-use plastics. “Our collaboration exemplifies what can be achieved when groups dedicated to achieving a low-carbon society collaborate,” says ABB.
If you need more information, please, contact us: we will be ready to help you and to discover the best solution for your project.