Customer demand hit record high – ABB Ability™ Smart Sensor sold out in days

ABB’s pioneering condition monitoring solution entered the market this week and was sold out in a matter of only a few days.

The world’s media love it. Ambassadors, dignitaries and business leaders from Germany to China adore it. Even world leaders have been impressed. And now the people that really matter – the plant operators, the maintenance teams and the engineering personnel – got their hands on the real thing early this week.

It is, of course, ABB’s remote condition monitoring device for low voltage (LV) motors; now christened as the ABB Ability^TM Smart Sensor. The response has been astonishing, with customer demand peaking at hit record high since the beginning. The first batch of smart sensor has already completely sold out within a few days since it was introduced to European market earlier this week, as announced at the Hanover Fair in Germany. The production of the next few thousands is already underway.

Since the first outing at the Hanover Fair in April, 2016, its global roll-out is well underway. With all the required certifications in place, Europe is the starting point with North America following closely behind. Other certifications for the likes of hazardous area environments are also expected later this year. The roll-out follows intensive testing and validation at many customer sites across Europe and North America. It is a vital step towards our goal of proving that all of a plant’s LV motors can be part of a cost-effective predictive maintenance regime and become active elements of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The promising start of the launch continues with more smart sensors being manufactured to respond to the remarkable customer demand.

ABB Ability Smart Sensors are available as retrofit kits for IEC motors, followed by a factory-fitted option.

They will also be introduced to the North American market and supplied as a factory-fitted option on severe duty NEMA motors manufactured by Baldor, ABB’s motor unit in the US.

Initially, the sensors are compatible with standard cast iron fin-cooled induction motors in frame sizes 256 (NEMA) and 160 (IEC) upwards that are connected direct-on-line (DOL) and operate in continuous duty (S1). It is suitable to use with starting methods such as star-delta motor starters as well as soft starters.

However, this is just the beginning: Later releases will include further power ratings and other motor types, including intermittent duty and speed controlled motors. Synchronous reluctance motors (SynRM) and permanent magnet motors are outside the scope of this launch, because of the fundamental differences in the function of the motors.