In a significant move toward sustainable manufacturing, ABB Robotics has launched its comprehensive Energy Efficiency Service, offering manufacturers a powerful suite of tools and expertise to optimize their robotic operations' energy consumption. This innovative service comes at a crucial time when high energy costs are hampering the competitiveness of 58% of global manufacturers, according to recent Energy Efficiency Movement findings.
The new service addresses a long-standing challenge in industrial robotics: the complex task of accurately measuring and optimizing energy efficiency. Drawing on ABB's five decades of industrial robotics experience, the service combines expert consultation with advanced analytical tools to provide manufacturers with clear insights into their robots' energy usage and concrete strategies for improvement.
Michael Hose, managing director of ABB Robotics' customer service business line, emphasizes the timeliness of this initiative, noting that "over 93% of surveyed manufacturers plan to invest in energy efficiency improvements in the next three years." These investments aim to both reduce operational costs and demonstrate progress toward sustainable manufacturing practices.
The service is built around three key tools:
- Standby Energy Optimization: An external tool that measures actual energy consumption of robots and controllers, providing detailed reports with specific recommendations for energy savings.
- Program Optimization: Analyzes robot operating programs to identify opportunities for energy efficiency improvements, such as adjusting speed or motion paths.
- Energy Monitoring and Benchmarking: Enables continuous monitoring of robot energy consumption and provides comparative analysis with similar applications.
Beyond these core tools, the service includes analysis of potential upgrades to newer technologies. For example, ABB highlights that its next-generation OmniCore robot controller can deliver 20% energy savings through features like power regeneration technology and brake energy recovery.
The launch of this service reflects a broader industry trend toward sustainability in manufacturing. Traditional methods of measuring robot energy efficiency have been hampered by the complexity of measuring multiple electrical components and accounting for various factors that can affect performance, such as inefficient setup, component sizing, overloading, and application changes.
ABB's approach simplifies this process by providing manufacturers with clear, actionable insights into their robots' energy consumption patterns. The service not only identifies areas for improvement but also offers specific recommendations for optimizing performance while reducing energy usage.
This initiative represents the latest development in ABB's strategic effort to help businesses transform their sustainability practices through automated process optimization and waste minimization. With manufacturers facing increasing pressure to reduce their environmental impact while maintaining competitiveness, services that can deliver substantial energy savings are becoming increasingly valuable.
As the manufacturing sector continues to evolve toward more sustainable practices, ABB's Energy Efficiency Service demonstrates how technological innovation and expertise can be combined to address both environmental and economic challenges. The promise of up to 30% energy savings could have significant implications for manufacturers' bottom lines while contributing to their sustainability goals.
The service's launch comes at a time when industrial automation users are increasingly prioritizing efficiency and sustainability, marking an important step forward in the industry's journey toward more environmentally conscious manufacturing practices.
