ABB has been appointed by Arauco, a manufacturer of forest products, to provide remote supervision in five of its pulp mills in Chile to ensure greater reliability and monitoring across all processes.

ABB supported Arauco in the setup of an operations room for remote supervision in central Concepción, Chile, the installation of remote monitoring infrastructure and ongoing service. ABB will establish connections from the operations room to the respective ABB Ability System 800xA distributed control system (DCS) in the Arauco and Licancel mills. The other sites, Constitución, Nueva Aldea and Valdivia mills, were supported by another DCS as part of the Arauco project.

The global technology leader will also supply seven of its Extended Operator Workplace (EOW) control room consoles and manage the configuration and installation of these in each of the mills. ABB already has a large installed base with Arauco and was selected for this order due to its scalability, future supply of consoles and remote connections.

"This project with ABB is an important step forward for the company and supports our strategy to focus on the technological and sustainable development of our plants and advance our position as a relevant player within Industry 4.0," said Marcelo Silveira, Arauco's Deputy Manager of Process Reliability. "It will allow us to centrally monitor all of our operations in our Pulp and Energy business and offer a competitive edge on quality, response time, operational stability and cost reduction."

Arauco has five operations of pulp production in Chile and a total of seven in the South America region. From forestry through to end-product, Arauco conducts research and development that is essential to ensure sustainability over the long term. It includes Bioforest, a center of excellence to help apply the latest technologies at the center's woodpulp and biotechnology labs and greenhouses, as well as the company's forestland and industrial facilities.