A brief history of ABB, a Swiss industrial electrical giant.

ABB (Arcia Brown Boveri) Group Company is composed of Asea (Arcia) and Brown, which were originally headquartered in Sweden. Boveri &; Co., Ltd. (BBC), two famous electrical appliance companies with a history of one hundred years, merged with 1988. ABB Group is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, and its low-voltage AC drive R&D center is located in Helsinki, Finland. Medium voltage AC drive research and development center is located in Switzerland; The research and development center of DC drive and traditional low-voltage electrical appliances is located in Frankfurt, Germany.

Before the establishment of ABB Group, both ASEA and BBC were world-famous large producers of power and automation technology and equipment. It is also one of the earliest enterprises engaged in R&D and industrial robot manufacturing in the world. Its cumulative sales volume has exceeded 200,000 units, with complete product specifications and large output. It is a world-famous manufacturer of industrial robots and a major supplier of industrial robots in China.

Harcia Company (ASEA)

ASEA company was established in 1890. By Elektriska Aktiebolaget (a lighting appliance manufacturer in Stockholm) and Wenstr? Ms& Granstel? Ms Elektriska Kraftbolag was merged and formed, and the full name is Allm? NNA· Svenska Company, later referred to as Harcia Company (ASEA).

In the early days, ASEA mainly focused on lighting appliances, motors and transformers. 1893, ASEA built the first three-phase transmission system in Sweden, just four years after the invention of the three-phase system. 1926, ASEA provided locomotives and converters for the newly-built Stockholm-Gothenburg railway. 1932, ASEA built the world's largest self-cooled transformer with rated current of 2500 kva. 1942, when China was still in War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, ASEA developed and manufactured the world's first 120KVA/220KV transformer in Sklodomo. 1954 to build the world's first 100 kv HVDC transmission line and other major products and projects; 1963, by introducing the improved thyristor, ASEA can continuously handle more current than the existing equipment, and achieved a major technological breakthrough. 1969, ASEA developed the world's first spraying robot and began to enter the field of industrial robot research and development. 1978, ASEA invented and launched the first batch of industrial robots in the world.

Brown Bovary (BBC)

BBC Company was founded in 189 1, and became the first supplier of high-voltage transmission equipment in the world in the same year. 190 1 year, the first batch of main products such as steam turbines in Europe were successfully developed. 1933, BBC obtained the patent of turbine welded rotor, that is, the rotor is welded by multiple disks. 1939 BBC built the first gas turbine for power generation. 1943, the BBC built the first 1 10kV high-speed air blowing circuit breaker. 1969, BBC developed the world's first gearless cement transmission. 1984 The first (* * * nine) BBC generators were installed at the world's largest hydropower station in Itaipu, South America.

At that time, BBC was a world-famous manufacturer of low-voltage electrical appliances and electrical transmission equipment, and its products were distributed in industry and commerce, civil building distribution, various automation equipment and large-scale infrastructure projects. Before the merger, 1986, BBC had 97,000 employees, with an operating income of $8.5 billion and a profit of $654.38+32 million.

1988, ASEA and BBC merged to form ABB company, which has a wider business scope and is one of the leading manufacturers in the field of electric power and automation technology in the world. After the merger, ABB divided its business into four departments, namely, power grid department, electrical products department, industrial automation department and robot and motion control department.

ABB's industrial robot research and development began in 1969 in ASEA, Sweden. 1969, ASEA developed the world's first spraying robot and put it into use in Norway. 1974, ASEA developed IRB6, the world's first five-axis painting robot controlled by microcomputer and driven by electricity. 1978, ASEA invented and launched the first batch of industrial robots in the world.

The core of ABB robot lies in motion control, while the difficulty of industrial robot lies in motion control system. Therefore, ABB company developed off-line programming and simulation software of Robot Studio in 1998, and developed Flex Picker flexible finger in the same year.

200 1: Became the first manufacturer in the world to sell more than 65,438+10,000 robots.

In 2005, ABB established a robot R&D center in Shanghai and built a robot production line.

2009: Developed the six-axis small industrial robot Irb 120 with the highest accuracy and the fastest speed in the world at that time, weighing 25kg.

20 10: ABB's largest industrial robot production base and the only painting robot production base-China robot automobile painting experimental center was built.

20 1 1: ABB developed the fastest palletizing robot IRB 460 in the world.

20 14: ABB developed the world's first robot Bai Weiling, which can truly realize man-machine cooperation.

20 15: acquisition of Gomtec plus code cooperative robot business.

20 16: acquisition of Swedish system integration company SVIA.

20 17: acquisition of B&R and acquisition of GE industrial system business.

By the end of 20 17, ABB had all-round business activities such as R&D, manufacturing, sales and engineering services, and had 40 local enterprises.

20 18: ABB green application center officially opened, providing users with full value chain business support from application development, front-end sales, system development to customer service.

The best motion control technology

ABB has the best motion control algorithm and motion control system in the industry. The core of robot is motion control, and its control system has gone through six iterations. The currently used IRC5 control system was developed in 2004 and can be used to control all ABB robots.

The six-axis linkage control technology in industrial robot determines the overall running speed of the robot. Simply increasing the speed (power) of single-shaft motor will only increase energy consumption and reduce accuracy. ABB's QuickMoveTM dynamic self-optimizing motion control technology makes each axis always move at the maximum acceleration, which is 25% faster than the production beat of competitors' robots without any adjustment.

Among the four robot families, ABB's gross profit margin is not the highest, but it has the largest volume. We can get a glimpse of his income in the past three years:

As can be seen from the data, ABB's turnover far exceeds that of the other three major companies. Of course, a large part of ABB's huge volume comes from its power and power business, which contributes more than 50%.

Among ABB's four business divisions, the total contribution of electrified products and power grids is about 60%, while that of robots and industrial automation accounts for 40%, and it is increasing year by year, which is also closely related to the manufacturing market.

From the perspective of industrial robot business income, from the perspective of volume, ABB, as the industry leader, earned 52.77 billion yuan in robot business, up 6.3% year-on-year; The other three companies also maintained an upward trend; Although the growth is not big, it still has the highest business volume and volume among the four families, and the robot business is more extensive than the other three families. In recent years, it has continuously invested in China to expand its market share.

On the whole, ABB is still the industry leader, but it will continue to develop into high-end industries and high-end manufacturing industries, laying a more solid foundation for the automation of industrial Internet.