Industrial Automation Magazine India

ABB opens global innovation and training campus for machine automation at B&R in Austria

Published on : Wednesday 13-07-2022

New campus serves as ABB global R&D center for machine and factory automation, AI and software solutions.

July 2022 – ABB opened its new global innovation and training campus at the headquarters of B&R in Eggelsberg, Austria, its global center for machine and factory automation. The new campus will create up to 1,000 additional high-tech jobs and includes world-class research and development laboratories, as well as global training facilities for up to 4,000 people per year in collaboration with universities. ABB invested EUR 100 million in the expansion of the B&R headquarters.

Campus innovations around artificial intelligence and machine and factory automation will play an essential role in unlocking the potential of future industrial production – in sectors such as electronics, e-mobility, food and beverage, recycling, logistics, or agriculture. They will increase productivity and flexibility, helping customers become more sustainable and produce closer to their end markets.

ABB CEO Björn Rosengren said: "Innovation has been in ABB’s DNA for more than 130 years and our division, B&R, is a true innovation hot-spot for the transformation towards more automated manufacturing. The official opening of this campus is a proud moment for our ABB as we create highly-skilled jobs while shaping the machines and factories of the future together with our customers.”

The new campus expands the total area of B&R's headquarters to more than 100,000 m², making B&R one of the largest sites for integrated production, research, and training in central Europe, with currently around 2,400 employees. The expansion will also free up space which will serve as additional production capacity to meet increasing demand for B&R products. 

Austria's Chancellor Karl Nehammer thanked ABB for an important initiative: “Investments in our business location are always also investments in the future of Austria. The corona pandemic, disruptions in global supply chains and now the war in Ukraine clearly remind us that we need to become more independent if we want to be better prepared for future challenges. I am therefore pleased that ABB is taking an important step in bringing manufacturing back home with the opening of its new innovation and training campus. The new campus will not only be a driver for digitalisation and automation, but also will create jobs and contribute to prosperity in Austria.”

In a rapidly changing world, facilities such as the new ABB global campus are of utmost importance to Austria’s role in the global economy and generate growth as a center for innovation and investment. The ever-growing digitalization and automation of our industries will be key for the re-industrialization of Europe and also for bringing manufacturing back to Austria. By homeshoring industry, we are creating new jobs, securing Europe's supply chain and seizing the opportunities for a more sustainable future.”

Sami Atiya, President of ABB’s Robotics & Discrete Automation business area, added, “This is a decade of transformation towards robotics and automation as our customers respond to global labor and supply shortages, accelerating consumer demand for personalized products and the need to operate more sustainably. ABB’s new campus will serve as a customer collaboration center where we work with customers around the globe, helping them to respond to these trends and supporting B&R in becoming the partner of choice for the world’s most ambitious industrial automation projects.”

According to ABB research, 8 out of 10 companies in Europe and the U.S. are planning to further automate and 7 out of 10 to near- or reshore their production. The global addressable market volume for machine and factory automation is currently estimated at $20 billion p.a. and is expected to increase to $31 billion p.a. by the year 2030.

With the acquisition of B&R in 2017, ABB is the only company offering industrial automation customers the entire range of integrated hardware and software solutions around control, actuation, robotics, sensing as well as analytics and electrification.