- Lars Eckerlein, General Manager at ABB (China) Limited introduced ABB’s leading greenhouse gases monitoring solution to visitors
- James Zhao, Senior Vice President of ABB China gave keynote speech at the intelligent manufacturing innovation development forum
- ABB Beijing Drive Systems Co,. Ltd. was certified as the Beijing foreign-funded R&D center and won the new technology & new product award
2023 Zhongguancun Forum (ZGC Forum), themed Open Cooperation for a Shared Future, was held in Beijing from May 25 to 30. This is the third year in a row for ABB to participate in this event where Lars Eckerlein, General Manager of ABB (China) Limited introduced ABB’s industry leading greenhouse gases (GHG) monitoring solutions at ABB booth of the exhibition area to visitors, and James Zhao, Senior Vice President of ABB China was invited to give a keynote speech at the intelligent manufacturing innovation and development forum. Meanwhile, ABB Beijing Drive Systems Co,. Ltd. was certified as the Beijing foreign-funded R&D center and won the top ten most influential new technology & new product award for its industrial drive ACS880-07C.
Developed on the high performance ACS880 platform, ACS880-07C is designed for China market to better meet customer needs with high-quality, tailor-made and cost-effective design. These industrial drives are flexible and can be customized to precise needs of industries such as oil and gas, mining, metals, chemical, cement, pulp and paper. Meanwhile, ABB Beijing Drive Systems Co,. Ltd. was awarded the license of Beijing foreign-funded R&D center at the event. Prior to this, the company was announced as the first batch of foreign-funded R&D centers in Beijing certified by the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission and the Zhongguancun Science and Technology Park Management Committee in July 2022.
ZGC Forum also provides a bridge for international technology exchange and a perfect platform for promoting innovative technologies with an exhibition area of 27,000 square meters. ABB's comprehensive and integrated GHG monitoring solutions can meet various kinds of gas monitoring needs in one stop, from space to land, from fixed pollution sources to atmospheric environment stations, providing "sky-earth-space" high-density and three-dimensional monitoring technologies. These solutions accurately quantify the emission monitoring of various greenhouse gases from cities, industrial infrastructure and agriculture, and provide data support for the implementation of China’s dual carbon goals and the emission cut targets of industries.
In China, the vehicle-based ABB MobileGuard™ Gas Leak Detection System, which is combined with Beidou precision positioning service has been widely applied in Beijing, Chongqing, Urumqi and other places, and has provided detection service and technical support for more than one million kilometers of gas pipelines in total for more than 150 gas companies across the country. In Beijing alone, the solution has contributed to the security for many major international and domestic events such as the 2018 FOCAC Beijing Summit, the 2nd Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, the 2019 International Horticultural Expo, the sixth World Internet Conference, and the Beijing Winter Olympics.
James Zhao, Senior Vice President of ABB China was invited to attend the intelligent manufacturing innovation and development forum, one of 2023 ZGC Parallel Forums and shared ABB's good practice and insights on green smart manufacturing, as a reference for the industries to accelerate transformation and sustainable development. He said: “With the wide application of digital, low-carbon and smart technologies in the manufacturing industry, smart manufacturing has increasingly become the main direction of China's manufacturing industry. China has issued a series of action plans to promote the high-quality and sustainable development of the manufacturing industry. Committed to the market-driven and people-oriented strategy, ABB makes bold push to upgrade its production facilities, striving to build safter, more efficient and flexible factories.”
In his speech, James shared ABB's insights on green smart manufacturing by introducing the renovation and upgrade project of Unigear500 MV switchgear production line. Faced with multiple challenges such as capacity bottlenecks, quality improvement and cost pressure, ABB upgraded its traditional production line, designed a new production organization for discrete manufacturing scenarios by creating a continuous single-piece flow production line, and deployed robot assembly workstations integrating machine vision and deep learning algorithms at key stations with high complexity. The project helps this production line to increase capacity and delivery speed by 31% and 50% respectively, and reduce production line space up to 31%. Meanwhile, it also transfers front-line employees from manual labor to the operation and management of intelligent equipment and systems, opening up a broader space for talent cultivation and human-machine collaboration.
During the forum, ABB and other companies signed the Partnership Initiative on smart manufacturing development, vowing to enhance cooperation on the research and standard development of related technologies for smart manufacturing, co-building the sustainable ecosystem for the smart manufacturing industry, and together contributing to the global economic recovery and sustainable development.
China is ABB’s second largest market as well as one of the most important R&D and manufacturing centers. ABB is committed to becoming the partner of choice for China's sustainable growth by continuously investing in R&D, digitalization and smart manufacturing. For example, ABB has officially opened its robotics mega factory in Shanghai last December to further strengthen its robotics and automation leadership in China. In early 2023, Xiamen ABB Low Voltage Equipment Co,. Ltd. became ABB's fifth company to receive the national green factory status from MIIT and ABB LV Installation Materials Co,. Ltd Beijing ranked among 2022 Beijing smart factory list; ABB Xiamen Hub deployed innovative solutions to reduce carbon emissions up to 13,400 tons, in line with the Mission to Zero initiative; ABB E-Mobility's smart factory in Ping Hu of Zhejiang Province reached new milestone with its one-millionth EV charger rolling off the production line. In the future, ABB will continue to maintain steady investment in China, provide more digital and smart technologies and solutions for the sustainable and high-quality development of China's economy.
About Zhongguancun Forum
2023 Zhongguancun Forum is jointly hosted by the Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Engineering, China Association for Science and Technology and Beijing Municipality. Since its inception in 2007, 13 editions of the Zhongguancun Forum have been held successfully, serving as a vital international platform for China's active involvement in global scientific and technological innovation, and its extensive participation in global science and technology governance.
