ABB sells first robot manufactured in US to Hitachi

ABB robots
ABB today annoucned that it sold the IRB 2600 robot — the first to be produced at the ABB Auburn Hills, Michigan facility — to Hitachi Powdered Metals USA.

Hitachi Powdered Metals will use the robot, which is painted with special commemorative red, white and blue paint, for material handling of in-process engine component parts at the Hitachi Greensburg, Indiana facility.  It is the 180th ABB robot at the Hitachi plant, which installed its first ABB robot in 2005.

“The sale of ABB’s first robot produced in the US to Hitachi is a tremendous milestone in the development of our manufacturing presence in the Americas,” said Sami Atiya, president of ABB’s Robotics and Motion division.

“ABB robot will be prominently positioned on our plant floor to showcase the essential role ABB robots have in our operation, and our passion to keep production in the US. For a company of our size the volume of robots we have is unprecedented,” said James Adams, chief engineer of robots and automation at Hitachi.

In May 2015, ABB announced that it would begin producing robots at its Auburn Hills facility, making it the first of the major industrial robot companies to fully commit to an American manufacturing footprint.

In addition to the IRB 2600, ABB will begin manufacturing other popular robot models in Auburn Hills this year. By 2018 it is planned that 75 percent of all the models delivered to North American end-users will be manufactured in the United States. Previously ABB robots sold in the Americas were made in Sweden and in China.

ABB has installed more than 300,000 robots worldwide.

Meanwhile, Japan sent a robot to the Fukushima nuclear plant to measure radiation levels inside and evaluate its condition ahead of a future dismantling of a reactor.

The self-propelled, remotely-operated robot is equipped with a video camera, thermometer as well as dosimeter — to measure radiation — among other sensors, said the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the maker of the bot, in a statement.

Using the recorded data and footage, experts will try to ascertain the presence of melted fuel that could have leaked from the reactor core and accumulated at the bottom of the containment vessel, something they have been unable to verify so far.

Related News

Latest News

Latest News