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disassembled. With manufacturers required to pay substantial producer responsibility fees as part of the EU’s WEEE regulation, the system provides the every device that it handles. Details on weight, size, manufacturer, barcode number and model number are all collected and stored, providing manufacturers, regulators and compliance organisations with valuable data on what is, and is not, being recycled.
PRINTING THE FUTURE OF SUSTAINABLE RETAIL The problem of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans has seized the public’s attention in recent years as awareness grows of the devastating impact it is having on the world’s aquatic ecosystems. It is estimated that there are around 51 trillion pieces of plastic currently scattered throughout the Earth’s seas, with 80 per cent entering via rivers and coastline areas. As well as the impact on marine life, the problem also affects those who depend on the sea for their livelihood, One novel solution has been developed by
environmental organisation and global network, Parley for the Oceans. Plastic debris recovered from the sea or washed up on beaches is turned into pellets which are then used by a 3D printing robot to create new items such as furniture and being able to recover and reuse plastic in this way are considerable, producing just one ton of plastic requires 180,000 litres of water, whilst fossil fuels including crude oil and natural gas represent a key ingredient in 99 per cent of all plastic objects. The potential of robotic automation to turn
recovered plastic into desirable objects was highlighted in a special demonstration at London’s Selfridges department store. Developed in partnership with environmental
organisation and global network, Parley for the Oceans, and innovative design brand, Nagami, the demonstration used ABB’s RobotStudio simulation software and an IRB 6700 robot to create a variety of printed furniture, homeware and other objects made from Parley Ocean Plastic. The robot, which was stationed in the front window of Selfridges on Oxford Street, London, used Nagami’s unique plastic extruder to print the objects which could be selected for purchase by customers on a screen and made to order on the premises, underlining the potential for robotic 3D printing using recycled plastic as part of a new age of environmentally responsible retailing.
GIVING AUTOMOTIVE BATTERIES A NEW LEASE OF LIFE As the world turns to hybrid and electric vehicles as a way of cutting pollution from transportation, so does the production of the batteries needed
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to power them. While electric vehicles pose a potential solution to the problem of tackling exhaust emissions from petrol and diesel vehicles, the issues associated with producing the batteries pose their own set of environmental challenges. In each case, the batteries produced will require
large quantities of virgin materials, including rare metals such as cobalt, nickel and manganese. It is, therefore, important to ensure that as much of these materials as possible can be recovered and reused at the end of their serviceable life. One company that is addressing this challenge is US automotive battery-pack remanufacturer
‘Around 50 million tonnes of electronics products are consigned to waste every year, which is equivalent to throwing away 1,000 laptops every second.’
Dorman Products Inc. The company uses an ABB IRB 4600 six-axis industrial robot as part appropriate battery modules that can be used to build a complete refurbished battery pack.
simulation software, the automated system uses the ABB IRB 4600 as part of a cell to identify and either store or retrieve suitable modules from a series of racks arranged in a decagon around the robot. The racks house up to 5,000 modules, with two conveyors on each side of the cell, one to bring in modules to be placed into the module library and the other to remove modules which have been selected by the robot for potential reuse.
to create a battery pack needs to be precisely handled. Two modules go together to make a pair, with each module needing to be perfectly matched with its partner, and all pairs perfectly matched with each other. The intelligence for the robot is provided by a combination of an ABB IRC 5 robot controller, which interfaces through a PLC with a LabVIEW software program. As modules enter the storage area, a SICK Inspector camera scans the QR code to correlate the item’s entry date and grade with its storage location. The LabVIEW program stores scanned on exiting the area.
When the robot begins the matching process, the LabVIEW software program instructs the robot which modules to pull, and in which order scope of the potential reduced environmental impact that can be achieved through recycling the used batteries. Since the automated system was introduced, Dorman has increased its daily output battery build times reduced by 66 per cent.
REIMAGINING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE FOR MANUFACTURING These are just some examples of a wider range of applications where robots are enabling new approaches to solving problems that have traditionally impacted on the sustainability of the manufacturing sector.
With other examples encompassing everything from manufacturing compostable packaging through to reducing discharges of excess paint in automotive car-spraying processes, robots are providing an increasingly viable opportunity for minimising their environmental footprint.
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November/December 2025 Irish Manufacturing 9
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