ABB offered its technical expertise to provide a turnkey solution for an automotive giant, sited in Changchun City, China.
The PCS100 active voltage conditioners (AVCs) from ABB have been installed in the headquarters plant for the production line of a new model series in order to protect the control systems and welding robots (Figure 1). This is the largest PCS100AVC installation to date for the automotive sector.
Figure 1. ABB’s PCS100 AVCs are protecting the welding robots and control systems for a new model series production line at the headquarters plant of an automotive giant.
China’s automotive sector has seen considerable growth since 2008. It is presently the world’s largest, in terms of units and is more than that of the EU and the US combined. Out of the automobiles manufactured, 44.3% were local brands, including this automobile producer, manufacturing over one million cars annually.
Obtaining the Most Effective Solution
Since it initially commenced operations in 2012, the new welding plant experienced voltage sags. For producing a constant production output without any interruptions, the company looked for a power protection solution, which was consistent, highly effective and complete with a tiny modular design to accommodate in their switch room.
Two PCS100 AVCs were provided by ABB, 750 kVA and 900 kVA to offer voltage protection for two of the plant’s four transformers. This secured the robot and control system’s sensitive loads used for manufacturing the new car series. This was important for ensuring total protection as the time frame for rebooting the operation of the facility was sufficient to cause a downtime in production output.
Setting Performance Levels to a New High
From the time of installation, the AVCs have been offering a large number of benefits. The compact design ensures the PCS100 AVCs can be installed into confined spaces like the switch room while offering excellent reliability with the integrated bypass. This enables fail-safe protection for the facility’s load. In addition there is no storage requirement as it draws the current needed to compensate the correction voltage from the utility supply. This minimizes CAPEX and OPEX, resulting in benefits such as ROI.
Proven Results
Since being installed in September 2013, the automotive giant has recorded a significant improvement in the performance of its production processes.
Process shutdowns, which took place because of voltage sags, have been minimized by over 90%. With this company being a very large automotive company in China, the new plant required a safe and secure solution like the power protection solution provided by ABB.
In 2009, the number of registered buses, cars, trucks on the road in China reached 62 million and is expected to exceed 200 million by 2020. According to experts, the China’s car market will grow 10 times between 2005 and 2030.
Slovakian motor factory
ABB also delivered eight PCS100 AVCs (4x165 kVA and 4x 250kVA) to a Slovakian motor factory. The power protection products from ABB have been applied to the pressing and painting workshops and motor production lines for a range of automotive manufacturers. ABB has given its expertise, resources and time for devising proven low voltage solutions to optimize the quality and quantity of businesses.
About ABB Power Conditioning - Discrete Automation and Motion Division
ABB is a leading supplier of UPS and power conditioning products – ABB's PCS100 portfolio is a unique line up of low and medium voltage power conversion technology. The PCS100 power converters demonstrate highly reliable and cost-effective performance. With the PCS100 product portfolio, ABB offer efficient power conversion solutions that are specifically designed to solve power quality problems and stabilize networks. Covering applications from data centers through to complete industrial plant protection, microgrid systems and shore-to-ship supply, ABB have the power conversion technology for every need. Starting from a few kVA to many MVA and a wide range of supply voltages. ABB has installed more than 900 MW of power conditioning solutions worldwide. It’s business as usual with ABB Power Protection.
This information has been sourced, reviewed and adapted from materials provided by ABB Power Conditioning - Discrete Automation and Motion Division.
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