ABB Robots and Zume partnered to automate production and provide a cost-effective alternative to single-use plastics. ABB Robots also will enable the scale and speed required to make Zume’s packaging from 100% compostable packaging made from plant-based agricultural materials, the companies say. Data from the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) states that less than 10%, or 380 million tons, of plastic produced globally every year is recycled. ABB will supply robotic cells that will enable Zume’s production of sustainable packaging on a global scale and will integrate and install more than 1,000 molded fiber manufacturing cells (MFC) and send as many as 2,000 robots to Zume customer’s sites worldwide during the next five years, the company says. ABB will leverage its program management capabilities and automation experts in its network of Global Solution Centers to enable the scale, modularity and speed required to launch the solutions, which have the potential to annually produce millions of pieces of sustainable packaging. Containers are molded from the plant material by Zume’s molded fiber cells integrated with two ABB IRB 6700 robots, with each cell processing up to two tons of agriculture material every day, creating 80,000 pieces of sustainable packaging. 

ABB Robotics, 1250 Brown Road, Auburn Hills, Mich. 48326; 248/391-9000; www.zume.com/zume-x-abb.