Shanghai, Dec. 2 (Xinhua Finance) -- ABB's robot Gigafactory opened in Shanghai's Pudong New Area on Dec. 2, making it ABB's largest robot research and development, production and application base in the world. Industry insiders say that robots have become the core equipment of intelligent manufacturing and become the strategic field of global industrial technology upgrading. The accelerated development of the robot industry will further accelerate the digital transformation of manufacturing and other industries.
"Artificial robot with machine" has been preliminarily realized
ABB's robotic Gigafactory, with a total investment of $150 million (about 1.1 billion yuan) and covering an area of 67,000 square meters, will become ABB's main production base in China in the future, according to the company. "In the future, more than 90 percent of the products we sell in China will be manufactured here," said Simon An, global president of ABB Robotics and Discrete Automation. It will support us in providing more locally made products, solutions and services to Chinese customers."
Reporters at the scene saw that the new factory abandoned the traditional fixed assembly line, instead of flexible, modular production units, the initial realization of "artificial robots with machines".
"The AI-enabled robot system can perform tasks such as screw tightening, assembly and material handling, freeing people from these jobs to do more valuable work," said Liang Rui, president of ABB's robotics business unit in China.
"More resilient, faster and more efficient production and internal logistics are achieved through flexible automation. "The new facility is the latest in ABB's efforts to promote flexible manufacturing, modular production and intelligent manufacturing, with a strong focus on robotic AI learning technologies." "Said Marscon, global president of ABB's robotics business.
The new R&D center of ABB's robotic Gigafactory covers an area of about 8,000 square meters and will accelerate ABB's innovation in artificial intelligence, digitalization and software, focusing on autonomous mobility, digital twinning, machine vision and other fields to develop robots that are smarter, more flexible, safer and easier to use.
"With the opening of the gigafactory, we can further meet the surging demand for automation in the Chinese market, especially in emerging sectors such as new-energy vehicle manufacturing, wearable smart electronic devices, catering, and medical and health care." Mr Liang said.
The Shanghai Gigafactory is another major project for ABB Robotics and Discrete Automation, following ABB's Global Innovation and Training Center for Mechanical Automation, which opened in Austria in July, and the Learning Factory 4.0, which opened in Berlin in September.
The development ecology of the robot industry has been continuously improved
ABB's largest robot factory has been put into operation in Shanghai, reflecting the new trend of digital transformation in the industry to some extent.
It is reported that Shanghai is comprehensively promoting the digital transformation of the manufacturing industry, the implementation of the intelligent manufacturing action plan, has built 3 national benchmark smart factories, built 100 municipal smart factories and a number of excellent intelligent manufacturing demonstration scenes. "Smart factories should be used to drive the digital transformation of the industry." Shanghai Economic Information Commission deputy director Tang Wenkan said.
In the next three years, Shanghai will implement the smart factory Pilot Action Plan, promote the "235" project, build 200 smart factories, 20 benchmarking smart factories, and promote intelligent manufacturing diagnosis and evaluation, digital transformation of enterprises in key regions, and intelligent upgrading of chain owners. It has doubled the output of industrial robots, the scale of intelligent manufacturing equipment, the number of application scenarios, the number of new technology breakthroughs, and the number of new standard revisions.
It is reported that Shanghai will lead the leading enterprises to build a new highland of robot industry. ABB expects annual global robot sales to grow from $80 billion today to $130 billion by 2025.
Data from the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology also showed that the output of industrial robots in Shanghai exceeded 70,000 units in 2021, with a year-on-year growth of 34%, ranking the first among domestic cities in China for many years. At present, robot application is in high demand in Shanghai. The density of robots in designated industrial enterprises in Shanghai has reached 260 units / 10,000 people, which is more than twice the global average.
Tang Wenkan said: "We will focus on the development of intelligent terminal industry cluster represented by robots, adhere to the leading enterprises as the traction, with Zhangjiang Robot Valley as the carrier, to accelerate the collection of a number of intelligent robot industry chain upstream and downstream enterprises."