SWISS tech giant ABB on Friday officially opened its largest and fully automated robotics factory where “robots make robots” in Shanghai.

The mega factory in the Pudong New Area is the largest robotics research and development (R&D), manufacturing and application base of ABB worldwide, the company said. It involved an investment of US$150 million and covers an area of 67,000 square meters.

“Building on three decades of success in China, the opening of our new mega factory is another milestone in helping our customers grow sustainably, address labor shortages and create high-value jobs in a new era of automation,” said Sami Atiya, president of ABB Robotics and Discrete Automation.

As one of three ABB Robotics factories worldwide, the new facility in Shanghai, which replaces the existing site, will support customers in Asia, ABB said.

Liang Rui, president of the ABB Robotics Division in China, said that the company will take advantage of the factory’s bigger capacity, and more advanced and flexible manufacturing techniques to better serve the Chinese market and the Asia-Pacific market at large.

ABB said the new facility will deploy its digital and automation technologies to manufacture next-generation robots.

The facility creates a digital manufacturing ecosystem that harnesses virtual planning and production management systems to improve performance and maximize productivity through the collection and analysis of data.

There are no traditional, fixed assembly lines, but flexible, modular production cells that are digitally connected and networked, and served by intelligent autonomous mobile robots, the company said in a statement.

AI-powered robotic systems take on tasks such as screwdriving, assembling and material handling, relieving people from these tasks and enabling more rewarding work.

“This manufacturing and R&D facility brings to life our vision for the factory of the future, where flexible automation makes production and intra-logistics more resilient, faster and more efficient,” said Marc Segura, president of ABB Robotics.

The site’s R&D center, covering an area of 8,000 square meters, will create new innovations in AI, digitalization and software, such as autonomous mobility, digital twins, machine vision and low-code programming software, to make robots more intelligent, more flexible and safer and easier to use.

These innovations, co-developed with partners and customers in ABB’s “open lab,” will help unlock new possibilities for flexible automation in new sectors such as new energy vehicles, logistics, health care, food and beverages, said the company.

The new factory shows ABB’s unwavering commitment to China, the world’s largest robotics market. It underlines ABB’s commitment to manufacturing in China and for China, Atiya said via video link.

ABB said it employs more than 15,000 people in more than 130 cities in China and China remains one of its most important R&D and manufacturing centers.

As one of the most advanced and automated economies in the world, China is now a hugely important market for ABB, Atiya said. “Today, we see unprecedented demand from Chinese businesses to automate.”

Over the years, the world’s second-largest economy has been going through an industrial upgrade, generating robust demand for robotics as more enterprises steer toward intelligent manufacturing.

ABB predicts that the global robot market will grow from US$80 billion today to US$130 billion in 2025.

China is the world’s largest market for industrial robots, with its production reaching about 366,000 units in 2021, a 10-fold increase from 2015, according to China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. (Xinhua)