ABB has announced the strengthening of its long-standing partnership with Volvo Cars. Particularly, it will supply more than 1,300 robots and functional packages to build the next generation of electric vehicles. This will support the Swedish car manufacturer to achieve its ambitious sustainability targets.

“The automotive industry’s historic transformation, driven by increasing consumer demand for electric vehicles and a desire to operate more sustainably, is creating new opportunities as well as challenges for global manufacturers,” said Marc Segura, ABB Robotics President. In addition, Segura said, “This latest commitment from our partner Volvo Cars demonstrates our shared focus of delivering more sustainable manufacturing. Through our new, energy-efficient large robot family and OmniCoreTM controllers, we will help to deliver energy savings of up to 20 percent at sites around the world.”

Efficient, Sustainable Cars

This agreement includes functional packages covering various production tasks, from spot-welding, riveting, and dispensing to flow drilling and ultrasonic weld inspection. Moreover, each package is ready-to-use and has been proven by customers. In addition, they are a combination of hardware, software, and services. They will be implemented at Volvo Cars’ facilities in Torslanda, Sweden, and Daqing, China.

Alongside the hardware and functional packages, ABB’s latest range of OmniCore robot controllers will help to deliver energy savings of up to 20 percent at sites. This is because of their highly efficient power electronics and the use of regenerative braking within the robot.

During the deployment, ABB will ensure production remains uninterrupted through using RobotStudio® planning and programming software platform. At the same time, visualize and optimize the deployment before the installation of robots. By developing and validating the required automation systems in a virtual space, Volvo Cars and ABB will create solutions that can be engineered once but deployed multiple times.

Volvo Cars and ABB share a long tradition of joint developments to make the production of cars more efficient. Moreover, to continuously improve the capabilities of industrial robots in this area. This latest project will see the two companies continue to work together over the next few years. The first deployments are likely to happen in early 2024.

It is the latest in a series of solutions by ABB aimed at helping the global automotive industry. Particularly, to reach its ambitious sustainability targets and transition to electric vehicle production.