Reduced capital costs
ABB robots are delivered to the Trisa toothbrush factory painted in Trisa’s signature blue color.
Brushing up
on productivity
To remain competitive in the global market, Swiss
market leader Trisa relies on highly automated
production – and ABB robots play a key role.
Text Melanie Nyfeler Photo Roland Eschmann
T
he large, bright production halls
bustle with activity. Highly au-
tomated systems manufacture
toothbrush handles in various
colors with an injection moulding tech-
nique. In another hall, a machine resem-
bling a sewing machine punches bristles
into the brush heads. As two women in
overalls supervise, the bristles are then
cut into shape and rounded down. At the
back of the hall, finished toothbrushes
automatically slide into pre-formed PET
covers; the packaging is cut and sealed
before being readied for dispatch to retail
outlets.
About a million toothbrushes leave
Trisa’s production plants each day. Some
120 years ago, the Swiss family company
began as a small factory making brush-
es in Triengen. Today Trisa employs more
than a thousand people and sells 250
million toothbrushes each year. Approxi-
mately 97 percent of the company’s out-
put is exported to about eighty countries
in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa,
China and India. Amazingly, one hundred
percent of the company’s output is pro-
duced in Switzerland.
Innovate to stay competitive
To remain globally competitive manufac-
turing a mass-produced item in a high-
wage economy, Trisa invests intensively
in new products. The company has be-
come the sector leader in terms of innova-
tion and technology; it develops complex
ABB robotics 2|10
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