ABB: Made in Canada, for the Earth and Beyond
October 2, 2020
For more than a century, ABB has been investing in Canadian technologies and products to support the development of local businesses.
Canada has been known around the world for its delicious maple syrup and warm winter coats. But it is also a place for innovation, certainly for technology leader ABB, which has partnered with several Canadian customers to foster industrial transformation and manufacture products that suit their specific needs for over a century. Across Canada, ABB experts build the most trusted products in North America.
ABB’s Canada-made products are playing a vital role in oil and gas, which forms a major component of the nation’s economy. The LWT310 – a guided wave radar that uses built-in intelligence for accurate, reliable measurements of oil level in tanks – fulfilled a crucial need of oil refineries and petrochemical plants. Another product, the LLT100 laser level transmitter, can measure the smallest ripples and harmful condensation building up in jet fuel tanks from 100 ft away, making it easier to monitor 48-foot tanks and ensure safety.
When it comes to Canadians’ safety in high footfall areas such as hospitals, universities, commercial and industrial buildings, ABB’s new cloud-based smart emergency lighting management system is among the most trusted in the country. The Nexus Pro, manufactured in Montreal, uses IoT technology to reduce maintenance costs and ensures peace of mind year-round. Building owners or managers can then focus on the essentials and let their intelligent emergency lighting system self-manage and reduce monitoring and testing times.
The Montreal Campus is also home to the Excitation Systems Center of Excellence for North America, manufacturing the UNITROL excitation and voltage regulation systems. Excitation Systems are an important aspect in power generating units used by electric utilities for reliable operations and grid stability. The UNITROL excitation systems have helped power over a whopping 260 GW of electricity produced in the Americas for over four decades!
ABB has been trusted in Canada for more than a century, so it is perhaps unsurprising that some products have become industry buzzwords. For instance, electricians often refer to the wire connectors used in commercial and residential buildings as Marrettes, after a trusted ABB brand that has been made in Canada since 1914.
Electrical Contractors share their experience after using the Marrette PRO-BLU wire connector. Watch the video.
Steel device boxes are often referred to generically as Iberville boxes, after the ABB brand that also includes fittings and roughing-in products, and today are manufactured in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, less than five kilometers from the brand’s namesake town where they were first manufactured over one hundred years ago. 
Along with manufacturing products in Canada, ABB’s engineers also customize and assemble existing products to meet the unique needs of Canadian customers. Consider FlexArc, a new generation of standardized welding cells designed to deliver cost-effective, state-of-the-art welding operations. ABB’s team in Brampton, Ontario, assemble the robots locally, utilizing local process knowledge.
Another great example are the ABB System Drives, such as the ACS880. The team in Canada customizes solutions for local customers, leading to stronger competitiveness in the drives market , which control deck equipment used in coastal marine transportation and shipbuilding. In the same way, the local assembly of lighting panels has resulted in faster delivery to customers and stronger presence in the market. The team at the Research Development and Assembly (RDA) Center in Montreal has the flexibility to increase production of the panels in response to higher demand from Canadian customers.
While everything is built on Earth, its utility goes much beyond. For instance, the Measurement and Analytics team in Quebec City developed the main instrument, the ACE-FTS, on-board the Canadian Science Satellite, SciSAT-1, helping track long term composition changes in the Earth’s atmosphere from Space. NASA also has ABB interferometers at the heart of a key instrument onboard their newest generation of polar orbit weather satellites (JPSS) which potentially saves lives by improving the timeliness and accuracy of weather forecasts for up to seven days.
With over 3000 talented employees, ABB’s Canadian businesses are helping customers stay competitive and efficient, even during challenging times. ABB pushes the boundaries of technology to build a smart, sustainable and safe future for Canadians everywhere.
