“Zippy Vision” revolutionizing the woodworking industry with smart woodworking equipment

Representatives of the Latvian innovative technology company “Zippy Vision” have just returned from the prestigious woodworking expo “IWF Atlanta” which took place in early August in the United States. It is one of the most important woodworking shows in the world and the solutions offered by the Latvian company garnered broad interest among the audience there. “Zippy Vision” manufactures scanners and other machine vision systems that measure and optimize timber processing according to various parameters, are able to detect the slightest defects in timber which would likely remain unnoticed to the human eye, offer the best sawing solutions to reduce waste, and can, where necessary, efficiently replace human input at various stages of timber processing and production, 

The company has been working in the industry since 2017, and it stands without competition in the Baltics in the production of high-tech machine vision systems. Thanks to the unique and innovative solutions developed by the company’s team of engineers and mathematicians, “Zippy Vision” is successfully competing on the global market with major players that have been in woodworking for decades. Apart from ready-made scanners for sorting, cutting and sawing logs, boards and furniture elements, “Zippy Vision” also offers customised proprietary solutions for customers in other industries as well. 

“The objective for any business is to obtain maximum output from their raw material. Our scanners and optimisation algorithms provide financial returns very quickly. The difference between a human-led or artificial intelligence-led wood sawing process can be worth up to several thousands of euros per day. That means that, depending on production capacity, a scanner can return the initial investment in as little as 3 to 12 months. Furthermore, unlike products offered by foreign competitors, “Zippy Vision” equipment is created to be compatible with any sawing equipment or production line already installed at a factory,” Gundars Kuļikovskis, one of the co-owners of the company, explains.

According to Mr Kuļikovskis, the decision to change a machine at a woodworking facility will be economically viable even with a 0.5 % optimisation of raw materials. Having replaced a scanner by a different manufacturer with a “Zippy Vision” scanner, a leading European woodworking company was able to increase their raw material use efficiency by 8 %. 

The “Zippy Vision” team handles the whole process of creating a machine: from studying the customer’s needs to developing a tailor-made engineering solution, programming it, teaching the artificial intelligence (AI), constructing the actual machine, all of which is done at the company’s facility in Riga, and then installing the machine at the customer’s premises anywhere in the world. “Zippy Vision” also provides maintenance and service for their products. 

“Scanners and machine vision equipment do not have moving parts, so their service life is practically unlimited. Customers purchase them looking to use them for 3 to 10 years, therefore proper maintenance is crucial. Our products are always modular, meaning that different components can be changed out and adapted to the production and development needs of the company. The machines are also connected to the internet, so the majority of servicing can be done remotely. We can log on, check everything and send software updates – 5 minutes during lunch break and the factory is already working with the latest generation and improved software,” Mr Kuļikovskis explains the advantages of the latest technologies. 

If completely new equipment is planned to be installed at a customer’s factory, the “Zippy Vision” team collaborates with other manufacturers of machines and conveyor technologies in the design of the scanning and machine vision equipment. Over the years, the company has implemented projects in collaboration with Latvian company “Forma”, German-based equipment manufacturer “Paul Maschinenfabrik” and the Italian industrial saw manufacturer “Primultini/Pribo”. 

The company’s main market right now is the Baltic States, where projects are being implemented, inter alia, at locally and internationally acclaimed companies “Krauss”, “Latvijas Finieris” and “VMS Timber”, however, several projects are also in the pipeline in Finland, the USA and Canada. “Zippy Vision” regularly takes its products to various international woodworking expos where their unique solutions have generated significant attention by the industry. The “Zippy Vision” customer portfolio includes the leading timber production, woodworking, wood processing, furniture and plywood production companies in the Baltics, but moving forward the company has ambitious goals to also enter other industries where machine vision and AI technologies are used. 

“The best praise is, of course, when our customers recommend our products and services to others. And internationally we can compete with our unique technologies. In many aspects, the woodworking and wood processing industry in Latvia is technologically better developed than in such countries as the USA or Canada. Instead of depending on the availability of timber and human resources, companies in the Baltic States are always looking for ways to do things smarter, more efficiently and automatically,” Mr Kuļikovskis says. 

Information material prepared with the support of the Recovery Fund. The author is solely responsible for the content of this publication. The views expressed herein do not reflect the official position of the European Union or the European Commission.