Leading global manufacturer of premium papers and self-adhesive materials, Fedrigoni, has contracted ABB to install its L&W Lab Management System (LMS) at its new RD&I facility in Verona to optimize efficiency and reduce lab procedure time. The Fedrigoni Innovation Center, a very important milestone in the Group’s growth journey, will officially open at the beginning of 2024. The 3,000 sqm space will consist of four closely complementary areas: the RD&I department, the FedLab (incubator of new ideas), the Customer Experience Centre and the Customer Academy (internal and external training).

ABB’s LMS has been purpose-built for paper testing labs, with automated lab reporting that is specifically tailored to workflow practices. This enables the operator to quickly and accurately complete measurements by sample or instrument and know which test is to be performed for every sample. Data from the lab instruments is automatically aggregated and captured in the database, eliminating the risk of errors and significantly reducing data collection time. Results become immediately available to the user who can use the web-based application to view historic data, quality reports, product quality limits, trends, and key performance indicators (KPIs) in an intuitive dashboard.

“The Innovation Center aims to be the home of innovation for both our worlds of special papers for packaging and creative communication and premium self-adhesives,” said Marco Nespolo, CEO at Fedrigoni Group. “It will be a physical space where we can bring together the best talents, inside and outside Fedrigoni, and the most advanced technological solutions to develop projects, new products and applications that support our customers. ABB’s lab management system met all of our requirements and will be instrumental in helping us to roll out new developments more quickly in the future.”

“We are pleased to support Fedrigoni’s commitment to paper and self-adhesives quality and digital innovation and be a part of its RD&I facility in Italy, which will be key to its expansion plans,” said Erik Teunissen, Regional Sales Manager, ABB Italy. “ABB’s new, modern LMS will help increase Fedrigoni’s productivity and efficiency by streamlining workflows, reducing time and risk of manual errors, and expediting the overall quality testing process for product development.”

Part of ABB Ability™, the LMS is scalable and can connect different benchtop lab testing instruments, as well as automated paper testing systems such as the L&W Autoline, into one database and interface. This installation will connect Fedrigoni’s 10 different L&W instruments – ABB’s L&W Bending Tester, L&W Bendtsen Tester, L&W Air Permeance Tester, L&W Tearing Tester, L&W Tensile Tester, L&W Micrometer, L&W Bursting Strength Tester, L&W OptiTopo, L&W TSO Tester and L&W Fiber Tester as well as third-party instruments – directly to the LMS which then is accessed via a web-browser.