ABB Limited

In Anchorage, Alaska, USA, ABB will provide a microgrid, combining battery and flywheel based storage technologies, designed to test scalability and improve power stability for around 300,000 people. 

An order worth around $75m has been won by ABB, to supply advanced converter transformers for the Belo Monte 800kV ultra-high-voltage direct current (UHVDC) transmission link. The 2,518km link will transmit clean power generated in the north of Brazil, from the Xingu substation, to the Rio Substation in the southeast. 

  Teaming up with India’s national electricity grid operator Power Grid Corporation of India (POWERGRID), ABB is involved in a mega project worth over $640m to deliver a transmission link that will have the capacity to bring reliable electricity to more than 80 million people.

The manufacturing facility of ABB in Coleshill, UK has been significantly invested in over the past 18 months. As part of its investment strategy, ABB has focused on production, including new CNC machinery and further corrugation and moulding technology for its cable protection product ranges. 

Major construction sites are tending to become very congested - in efforts to better exploit the available building space and speed project times. The workhorse tower crane is critical to the efficiency of such sites, and crane operators today often have to work in very complex 3D space envelopes with many potential collision zones.

A tool that uses ultrasonic technology to enable early prediction of paper and board materials performance, while facilitating the optimisation of key production processes has been unveiled by ABB.The L&W TSO Tester measures Tensile Stiffness Index (TSI) and Tensile Stiffness Orientation (TSO) properties on machine- or cross-machine profile paper samples cut out from the jumbo reel.

ABB’s latest generation of head mounted smart temperature transmitters have helped to provide a clever solution to a tricky upgrade project at Tata Steel in Port Talbot. ABB’s solution involved thirty TTH300 temperature transmitters being used to replace Hartmann and Braun field mounted units installed in 1981 without the need for extensive retrofitting work.

ABB says its electromagnetic flowmeters from the Water Technology List scheme will help water companies reduce the cost of using the latest flowmetering equipment. Set up over 10 years ago to promote the use of water efficient technology, the scheme allows companies to offset 100 percent of the costs associated with both purchasing and installation in the first year.

Two new models have been added to ABB’s CoriolisMaster flowmeter family. Both feature RS485 Modbus communications and are aimed at OEM machine builders. The FCB and hygienic FCH 130 and 150 series coriolis mass flow meters are ideal for filling applications across a range of industries. With their integral mount design and zero upstream or downstream piping requirements, the meters are ideal for use in confined locations, requiring just a fraction of the space required by volumetric methods.

ABB is poised to start the New Year with a bang following the order of 2,400 robots by BMW Group. Over the next three years the robots will be installed at factories in Regensburg and Leipzig, Germany, as well as in Tiexi, China. The ABB robots will mainly be used for material handling tasks, as well as gluing and spot welding processes.