- Automation
Summary
400 and 600 million
ABB will provide integrated automation, safety, and communication systems to Statoil's Johan Castberg oil field development project in Norway. Located in the Barents Sea, north of the Arctic Circle, the field will be developed with a floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) production vessel and subsea installation with 30 wells. The field has volumes estimated at between 400 and 600 million barrels of oil.
210,000
Under the motto of Integrated Industry Connect & Collaborate, a total of 210,000 visitors attended HANNOVER MESSE, with 5,800 exhibitors. Topics like machine learning, artificial intelligence, industrial IT platforms, the expansion of power grids for eMobility, the use of robots and autonomous systems in production and intralogistics, and the role of workers in the integrated factory were the subject of intense debate at the stands of exhibitors at the event. As the official partner country, Mexico presented itself as an innovative business partner and industrial location.
More than 70,000 of the visitors came from abroad, for an international share of 30 percent. China headed the foreign visitor statistics with a total of 6,500, followed by the Netherlands (5,300), Poland (2,700), and the U.S. (1,700). A total of 1,400 visitors attended from featured partner country Mexico.
Central trends highlighted at Hannover this year included the ongoing convergence between information technology (IT) and mechanical engineering, industrial IT platforms, and other new business models, and the imminent impact of artificial intelligence on the factory environment. The exhibitors in the automation halls profiled drive technology and fluid power as a key driver of digitized and integrated manufacturing.
34 GW
Kansai Electric Power (KEPCO) and OSIsoft LLC will help power producers improve the efficiency and operation of their thermal power plants with data. KEPCO will collaborate with its customers at every stage, from planning a new thermal plant to running the facility. The Kansai-value creation service, or K-VaCS, has services and technology to detect system abnormalities for utilities and others in the electric power supply chain. One of the key elements of the service is OSIsoft's PI System, a software infrastructure that brings insights about operational performance and equipment health across an enterprise. Engineers and operators can make critical decisions and track the results of implemented strategies.
The remote monitoring service has already started to help an early customer, the Bluewaters Power Station in Australia. Kansai Electric Power has also used the PI System in its own operations.
Based in Osaka, Japan, Kansai Electric Power is one of Japan's largest utilities. It operates more than 150 power plants with about 34 GW of authorized capacity.
33,000
According to Global Market Insights, Inc., SCARA (selective compliance assembly robot arm) robots used in the automobile industry will exceed 33,000 units by 2024. This can be credited to increasing usage in applications like high-speed assembly and handling operations. Rising demand for reduced bottlenecks and optimized productivity will boost the product penetration.
Parallel robots will have a compound annual growth rate greater than 4 percent by 2024. Micromanufacturing automation will fuel the product demand over the forecast period. High speed, stiffness, and flexible fixturing support the product demand. Growth in the automobile industry is leading to the implementation of advanced products to meet customer demand. Vendors focusing on automation solutions to eliminate risk factors arising from labor will spur the demand for automotive robotics. Additionally, extensive usage of robotics will reduce labor costs and thereby increase original equipment manufacturers profitability.
The need for better productivity and proper functioning of assembly lines in vehicle production has enhanced industry growth. Increasing technological advancements in raw materials used to make robots will escalate the product demand. In addition, increased demand from applications, such as welding, robotic processing, painting and dispense, and handling operations, will augment the industry growth rate.
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