ABB to supply 1,300 robots to Volvo to build next-gen EVs

ABB, a longstanding supplier to Volvo Cars, is to supply more than 1,300 robots and functional packages to help the Swedish car maker build the next generation of electric vehicles and 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. “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 OmniCore controllers we will help to deliver energy savings of up to 20 percent at sites around the world.”

This agreement includes functional packages covering various production tasks, from spot-welding, riveting, and dispensing to flow drilling and ultrasonic weld inspection. Each package is a ready-to-use, customer-proven combination of hardware, software and services and 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 due to their highly efficient power electronics and use of regenerative braking within the robot.

During the deployment, ABB will ensure production remains uninterrupted through the use of its RobotStudio planning and programming software platform to visualize and optimize the deployment before the robots are installed. 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 have for long been engaged in joint developments to make the production of cars more efficient, and 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, with the first deployments anticipated in early 2024.