Portugal's Tensai advances €15.92 million smart manufacturing investment to expand plastic furniture capacity

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On September 21, Tensai of Portugal announced the latest progress of its "Production Innovation Project" and plans to showcase a new round of manufacturing investment at its Estarreja production base on September 29. The project is included in Portugal's PT2030 and COMPETE2030 support frameworks, with a total project cost of approximately €15.9161 million, of which approximately €15.3307 million is eligible for funding, receiving approximately €5.3657 million in support from the European Regional Development Fund.

One of the core elements of this round of investment is expanding plastic products production capacity. Tensai is building a new industrial plant to expand plastic furniture production and alleviate capacity bottlenecks in existing production processes. The new facility will serve its Tensai Furniture business, which mainly produces Contract, HoReCa, and indoor and outdoor plastic furniture. Currently, the plastic furniture capacity at the Estarreja base is approximately 350,000 units per year.

The production system upgrade also covers automation, digitalization, and logistics processes. The project will introduce robotic equipment for key processes, digital printing capabilities, and integrated digital management of production and logistics processes, and will deploy an MES manufacturing execution system in the factory to strengthen real-time linkage of production planning, equipment operation, and manufacturing data. The technical demonstrations at the September 29 open day also include automation and robotics, digitalization, Industry 4.0, and production efficiency improvement solutions.

In addition to the plastic furniture business, Tensai's investment also involves expanding production capacity for professional refrigeration equipment. The company is building a new production area for professional refrigeration equipment, increasing the capacity of this business segment by redesigning process flows and adding new manufacturing capacity. The entire project adopts a cross-business production upgrade approach, with plastic processing, furniture manufacturing, and professional refrigeration equipment all included in the same industrial modernization investment framework.

Tensai's Estarreja industrial complex was completed in 2008, covering an area of approximately 35,000 square meters, and Tensai Furniture's plastic furniture business is also developed at this base. At present, the furniture segment mainly uses thermoplastic resin processing to produce Contract and HoReCa furniture. This round of new plant buildings and automated equipment will further expand the plastic furniture manufacturing capacity of this base.

According to the COMPETE2030 project registration information, the "TENSAI COMPETE 4.0 + Operational Efficiency + Capacity + Innovation" project was launched in November 2022 and plans to expand the company's production capacity through product, process, organizational, and digital transformation. The factory open event on September 29 will showcase the new equipment already implemented, new production capacity, and the application results of automation, robotics, and the MES system.