Västerås, Sweden— ABB suggests that Western companies will only remain competitive in the world through research and inventive use of automation. Some of its own examples include the world's most-powerful dc transmission line; selling ABB robotics to more than 80% of automotive manufacturers; and more than 20% ABB market share in distributed control systems, high-power ac drives, as well as in power, pulp and paper, metals and mining, and oil and gas industry segments. The industrial giant dispelled any notion of understatement at a media day here on Nov. 3, 2004, covering its expertise in process and automation technologies.

Heads of various ABB business units and division managers led off the event, summarizing technology developments and statistics about their respective areas. Among seven presenters were Fred Kindle, recently appointed CEO designate of the ABB Group, who explored the company's long history of innovation and R&D; Dinesh Paliwal, member of the ABB Group Executive Committee and head of ABB Automation Technologies division, who discussed "Delivering Customer Value"; and Markus Bayegan, ABB's chief technology officer, who presented developments in "R&D at ABB."

Demonstrations and displays of underlying products or solutions followed. The full-day event concluded with a tour of ABB's large industrial robot manufacturing facility and test laboratory. All of ABB's industrial robots are built in Västerås, except for painting robots. Production in 2004 will be nearly 10,000 robots, with 50 units made daily by the 250-employee facility, says ABB.

ABB's "Technology Day 2004" hosted about 50 editors and journalists from 13 countries in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Control Engineering was the sole representative from the U.S. For a longer version of this story, read Control Engineering Daily News, Nov. 19, 2004, at www.controleng.com.

Frank J, Bartos, executive editor