ABB
Machinery : Industrial Robot : General
ABB is a leading global technology company that energizes the transformation of society and industry to achieve a more productive, sustainable future. By connecting software to its electrification, robotics, automation and motion portfolio, ABB pushes the boundaries of technology to drive performance to new levels. With a history of excellence stretching back more than 130 years, ABB’s success is driven by about 105,000 talented employees in over 100 countries.
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ABB partners with Samotics to expand its condition monitoring services
ABB and Samotics, a leading provider of ESA technology that is a high-growth scaleup company based in the Netherlands, have entered a strategic long-term partnership to provide enhanced condition monitoring services. The approach will leverage each company’s capabilities to deliver more insight into machine health and energy efficiency. As a first step, ABB will integrate Samotics’ plug-and-play monitoring solution into its digital portfolio. The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Samotics’ technology is complementary to the well-established ABB Ability™ Condition Monitoring service for powertrains, a sensor-based solution that analyzes the health and performance of rotating equipment. Samotics’ SAM4 technology, based on electrical signature analysis (ESA), will expand ABB’s application of asset health monitoring of motor-driven industrial equipment as it does not rely on mounting sensors in the field. This means that SAM4 can be deployed on machines in harsh and submerged environments.
ABB to automate bioplastics plant for sustainable materials
ABB is partnering with NatureWorks to automate their new, greenfield plant in Thailand, converting sugar cane to the polylactic acid (PLA) biopolymer Ingeo. The new plant in Thailand, will ferment and distill plant-based sugars (in a process similar to making beer or wine) converting the sugars first to lactic acid, then lactide and then polymerize them into Ingeo. In the new site, these three separate production processes will be fully integrated, resulting in significant improvements in energy and production efficiency, ABB notes. In addition, the integration of the fermentation phase will secure the supply of lactic acid.
ABB to automate bioplastics plant for sustainable materials
ABB is partnering with NatureWorks to automate their new, greenfield plant in Thailand, converting sugar cane to the polylactic acid (PLA) biopolymer Ingeo. The new plant in Thailand, will ferment and distill plant-based sugars (in a process similar to making beer or wine) converting the sugars first to lactic acid, then lactide and then polymerize them into Ingeo. In the new site, these three separate production processes will be fully integrated, resulting in significant improvements in energy and production efficiency, ABB notes. In addition, the integration of the fermentation phase will secure the supply of lactic acid.
ABB’s Paper Mill Technology Helps Renewcell Turn Old Clothes Into New Fabrics
In recent years, the pulp and paper industry has gone from having a reputation of being dirty and environmentally unfriendly to being a leader in sustainability and pollution control. Now the technologies that enabled that transition are being used to help the textile industry too. And the players involved are restarting a shuttered paper mill in Sweden to make it happen, once more providing good-paying jobs for the area.
Renewcell is the Sweden-based scaleup at the center of it all. The company developed a sustainable process that recycles waste textiles into a product called Circulose, whose name is the tip-off that it’s aimed at making fashion circular.
Robotic 3D manufacturing providing greater flexibility
Robots are extending their reach. These multiaxis articulators are taking 3D manufacturing and fabrication to new heights, new part designs, greater complexity and production efficiencies. Integrated with systems to extend their reach even further, their flexibility is unmatched. Robots are virtually defying gravity in additive manufacturing (AM), tackle complex geometries in cutting, and collaborate with humans to improve efficiencies in composite layup. This is the future of 3D.
3D printing is already a multibillion-dollar industry, with much of the activity focused on building prototypes or small parts made from plastics and polymers. For metal parts, one additive process garnering lots of attention is robotic wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM).