Stiga RM, one of Latvia's leading timber companies, has entered into a cooperation agreement with BILA, a Danish developer of equipment and production tools and one of Europe's leaders in automation solutions. Although the company is well-known and highly valued among industry professionals, this will be the first opportunity for Latvian manufacturers to cooperate with this prestigious equipment supplier. The cooperation agreement will amount to almost EUR 3 million and will include the design, manufacture and installation of custom solutions for Stiga RM wood-wool cement board plant.

To replace labour-intensive manual work with robotic technologies, BILA solutions are widely used by global companies such as Siemens, Carlsberg, Orkla and many others in their factories around the world, therefore, establishing a successful cooperation with local company is a unique opportunity not only for Stiga RM, but also for the entire Latvian industry, as no other such advanced technological solution has been available in our country so far, emphasises Sandis Fogelmanis, Manager of the Stiga RM wood-wool cement board factory.

“We are proud to announce this important collaboration with a Danish team of professional experts whose decades of experience, knowledge and expertise will provide invaluable support to ensure that the Stiga RM plant has an outstanding level of robotics and automation that far exceeds any previously known and available solutions to produce this product. This project not only represents a new phase in the development of Stiga RM, but will also bring new heights in innovation in this sector,” says Sandis Fogelmanis.

“Our cooperation in the development phase has been extremely positive and we have had a very open and honest dialogue. It is our experience that a partnership approach is key to ensuring a successful automation project and Stiga RM has been very openminded about this way of working. This cooperation is also a great opportunity for us to expand our activities in the Baltic market,” says Per Bech Rasmussen, CEO BILA Automation.

BILA's solutions are expected to replace manual labour in the future Stiga RM WWCB plant, creating new job opportunities for highly skilled automation and engineering professionals who will service and monitor the operation of robotic equipment. This will not only improve production efficiency and productivity but will also help to meet the company's environmental objectives by reducing carbon emissions and energy consumption in the production process.

About Stiga RM WWCB plant:

The opening of the Stiga RM wood-based particleboard (WWCB) plant is planned for the end of next year, allowing sufficient time for the implementation and testing of technological solutions before the plant starts up to ensure that the production process is efficient and as precise as possible. Once opened, the 80,000 square metre plant’s cpmplex will provide nearly 100 new jobs and the production of high quality wood products mainly for export markets.

Thanks to innovative and powerful technologies, the plant will be able to produce up to 4.5 million square metres of acoustic wood-wool cement board every year. This high-quality, human- and environmentally-friendly, CO2-neutral wood product will mainly be exported to European, Scandinavian and North American countries, but the growing market will provide opportunities for marketing this product worldwide.

The total investment in the new plant will exceed EUR 32 million.

About Stiga RM:

Stiga RM is a family company from Tukums, founded in 1994 with the goal of protecting Latvia’s prosperity through responsible forest management. On more than 11,000 hectares of land, most of which is comprised of woodlands, the company carries out the full cycle of forest management based on the sustainable principles of forest management. Stiga RM’s factory in Kuldīga produces birch plywood from high-quality Latvian birch wood. The world’s most advanced production facility of Wood Wool Cement Board (WWCB) is currently under construction in Tukums. The company also offers roundwood transportation services, providing the largest fleet of log trucks in the Baltic and Scandinavian countries.

Source:  baltictimes.com