The integration of production processes through artificial intelligence, 3D printing and designthinking are fundamental issues that run through the entire wood-furniture value chain, from the first transformation to the last stage of adding value.

With this premise, FITECMA 2021 presents for the second time the Industry 4.0 specialized sector for wood. The space will have 200 m2 in which a commercial sample will be combined with a program of dissemination and training in 4.0 technologies for SMEs in wood and furniture, in which ASORA has been working together with the National Institute of Industrial Technology – INTI .

The results obtained in the 2019 edition of FITECMA are very encouraging, with great repercussion among the visitors of the fair and the exhibiting companies. “The participating companies were really very enthusiastic. They have had good contacts and took projects to work on the incorporation of these technologies in the wood industry “, comments Nicolás DeGennaro, Executive Director of FITECMA.

The exhibiting companies encountered demands that pointed to how to incorporate these technologies into their production lines to have more efficiency in products and services. “Although the wood industry seems somewhat traditional, there is a lot of interest and very good acceptance of new technologies” , points out Lautaro Rolón, technical commercial advisor of Print A Lot, dedicated to digital manufacturing and 3D printing.

Something similar raises Pablo Mellicovsky, head of International Channels of the South Hub of Totus. “From the visitors of FITECMA we saw that they want to have quick information because it allows them to make decisions. For example, to simulate an order from a very large client, to move production orders”, he points out.

In the case of GruPro’s line of collaborative robots, the focus was on the range of features, costs and implementation. “It was important to inform that we not only sell the technology, but that we can offer programming services,” explains Richard Maturana, the firm’s commercial representative.

For the industrial designer Adrián Oviedo, advisor to the printer manufacturer Chimac 3D Insumos, FITECMA allowed “to see how a link appears between a 3D plastic printing joining two wooden boards, for example, or other innovations that can be made at home or small workshops, things that can be solved by going to a factory that makes injection and that can be solved by making one piece, five pieces, ten pieces, at very low costs and with the same amount of materials that are offered in other markets “.

In the field of industrial automation “the fair helped to disseminate a part of the possibilities that exist today,” says Bittor Larraioz Aristeguieta, director of Larayoz Electrónica, a company in the Basque Country, Spain.

His Argentine colleague Leandro Pratto, account executive for Automación Micromecánica, highlights that “there is a trend in carpentry at an important level of technification, particularly in those associated with CNC technology.”

For his part, Nicolás Cuello, founder and director of Lucot, a firm dedicated to virtual reality, highlights that his experience at FITECMA was very productive: “We highlighted many problems in the industry to which we aim: to develop new ways of presenting products.” And he bets on the generational change in companies in a sector that they did not know in depth: “I believe that in FITECMA 2021, as technology is advancing at a very fast speed, it will be possible to make a more interactive approach, with proven things in the market through the survey that we take from the companies that passed and that will allow us to have specific software and solutions already tested “.