Representative End User Clients
Representative Automation Clients
Representative Software Clients
ABB India recently held an event in Bangalore to provide more exposure for its range of industrial drives in India and to expand the company’s local footprint for these critical products. The highlight was the announcement of local manufacturing of the ACS880 LV high power drive modules (which can be scaled up to 5.6MW). The company stated that this “showcases the company’s benchmark of performance, expertise and quality, serving you locally on a global scale.” This move reinforces ABB's commitment to the Make in India initiative and will cater to the India market with best-in-class offerings. ARC Advisory Group India was invited to this launch. In May 2017, ABB inaugurated remote connected monitoring systems for drives in their facility in Peenya, Bangalore. Presently 100 drives have been remote connected; 429 are in the planning stage; and the total number of remote-connected drives is likely to become 529 soon.
In his company overview, Sanjeev Sharma, Managing Director, ABB India said that the company has a strong local presence with 10 manufacturing locations, 47 factories, 22 offices, and 500+ channel partners; an R&D lab was set up in Bangalore in 2013. He spoke about how the company is driving sustainable urbanization, offerings, sectoral and worldwide spread (utility, industry, and transportation & infrastructure); and driving the 4th industrial revolution through product, software, and services. With the growth of industrial clusters and corridors, smart cities etc. there is significant opportunity to enhance energy efficiency – and for this deploying industrial drives is imperative.
According to ABB the ACS880 drives series provides:
- Scalability and performance to control for a broad range of industrial applications (mainly for process industries)
- A wide power and voltage range
- A broad range of options and features to suit the most demanding requirements
- Energy saving features
- Direct torque control (DTC)
- Adapted and approved motor control for different environments
ABB’s ACS880 – the all-compatible drives portfolio is compact, redundant, and modular and performs multiple functions. Its efficacy was demonstrated through successful case studies: ACS880 multidrive with IGBT base installed in Salem Steel Plant (SSP) for hot metal handling cranes; and ACS880 multidrive with IGBT base for paper machines at Kadlam and Rajahmundry, in Andhra Pradesh. In the Q&A session, the customer feedback spoke volumes. Reliance appreciated the performance of ABB’s drives; they have more than 1,000 drives in service, and these have never failed when used in critical applications. JSW mentioned that large numbers of ABB drives are used in cranes; the company has recently placed an order to ABB for a 5 million ton blast furnace which will have 60 MW capacity. Many end users from the cement sector appreciated the performance of ABB drives too.
ABB Ability
The next session was on ABB Ability. This is a new group-wide brand of ABB’s portfolio of digital solutions that connects across industries and refers to both platforms and services. This was in sync with the company’s opening line for most of their offerings – Let’s write the future…
In the context of drives it refers to digitally-aided services that help in data collection for lifecycle assessment, energy optimization, and remotely connected services. Remote services for drives using cloud enable reactive, proactive, and predictive maintenance. Customers for remote monitoring include automation, cement, metal, oil & gas, paper, power, rubber and other industries. ABB Ability for condition monitoring of drives provides visual and interactive indicators and reports at the press of a button. Another feature is the NETA-21 (universal network connector for drives), which can connect up to 9 simultaneous connected drives. The case studies identified potential savings; reduced cost of ownership; and reduced C02 emissions.
Globally, ARC analysts have been attending events showcasing the ABB Ability digital offering. This link will take you to Harry’s Forbes’ overview of one such event.