Summary

Urban Machine uses robotics and AI to make reusing wood more feasible for furniture makers. The company’s mission is to reduce or eliminate at least 50% of the 37 million tons of wood waste from the construction and demolition industry and to reclaim it for reuse for other reclaimed wood products. (Source) The company has created robotics-enabled machines that detect and effectively remove nails, staples and screws from wood leftover from other building/furniture projects. The robotics machine uses bird-beak-like pickers simultaneously extract nails and staples from all four planes of wood. Finally, the wood undergoes a quality check to ensure it is metal-free and ready for new construction. This process saves CO₂ emissions from wastes of wood ending up in landfill, and by reducing the amount of new lumber production required. (Source)

Story

Founder Eric Law came up with the idea for the company while working in his previous role in the construction industry where he learned that while steel and concrete have paths toward recycling, wood scraps end up in landfill because of metal embedded in them. Law then worked with co-founder Andrew Gillies to automate the process with another co-founder Alex Thiele and founded the company in 2021. (Source)

Pic credit: Biz Journals (right) and Urban Machine (top)