For more than 40 years, ABB has worked with Brazil’s largest producer of paper packaging, Klabin, to help it achieve its sustainability goals.
Klabin, founded in 1889, has 24 facilities in Brazil and one in Argentina. The Klabin Agenda 2030 is its ambitious sustainability-focused agenda, which aims to orient performance and growth strategies towards economic development, environmental sustainability and social justice.
Its sustainability goals emphasize the importance of transparency in environmental, social and governance (ESG) aspects that are fundamental to the company’s core operations and society in general. This includes a focus on energy and water use, carbon management, availability of wood, waste management and the development of people and communities where Klabin operates.
Achievement of these goals is reliant on innovative technology that will help drive efficiency in energy use, energy management and industrial processes.
Klabin’s partnership with ABB started in 1980, with the aim of maximizing results and optimizing resources. ABB solutions are now found in multiple areas of Klabin’s operations. For example, ABB’s quality control system (QCS) works to increase uniformity in paper and cellulose products, reducing losses and decreasing the consumption of raw materials, water, energy and chemicals. In this way, QCS directly contributes to the achievement of sustainability goals.
Klabin factories also rely on the plant-wide ABB distributed control system (DCS). This system manages, orchestrates and controls complex production processes via multiple autonomous controllers distributed throughout the network. These controllers communicate and coordinate with each other to perform specific tasks, allowing high stability and quality in production processes.
ABB’s power distribution, motor control and robotics solutions are found throughout Klabin’s facilities. Automated handling is an effective means of improving plant efficiency and ABB robots are relied on for many heavy lifting duties.
Automation of handling is an effective way to improve plant efficiency. ABB’s IRB 6600, which can deal with up to 175 kg, provides a helping hand here. 
An ABB IRB 6700 robot prepares the paper reels for transport
With ABB’s support, Klabin has worked to abandon obsolete processes, turning instead to the innovation and technology that are essential for advancing sustainable development – especially regarding carbon emission reduction and strategic use of water and energy.
The partnership continues to demonstrate that ambitious sustainability targets are achievable.
Read more about ABB’s partnership with Klabin here.
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