ABB: Looking to the next generation
Everything from power generation to the next generation of transport – this generation of ABB trainees are looking into the future.
January saw the trainees kicking off the new year with a customer visit to Gothenburg. Careful planning was required to ensure we could travel to Gothenburg by train and keep the trip as green as possible!
Day 1 started at Gothenburg Energi, where we enjoyed a presentation on electric vehicle charging stations and toured their beautiful indoor office gardens. ABB produces EV charging infrastructure, and here we got to see functioning electric bus and car chargers. We learned about the strategy employed by the city to ensure that the charging stations are positioned in optimal locations, and observed the special measures put in place by the city to ensure pedestrians are aware of the quiet electric buses moving around them.
Next on the agenda was Ringhals Nuclear Power Plant. Here we had an introductory lecture on nuclear engineering basics, the history of Ringhals and the role of nuclear energy in the Swedish energy mix. Following this we had a guided tour of one of the turbine rooms – seeing large scale ABB industrial generators in action! It was fascinating to see how such large-scale power plants operate to provide us with electricity.
The second day is a reputed favorite customer visit of the previous trainee groups: Volvo cars. Following a presentation on Volvo and their trainee program, we hopped on the ‘blue train factory tour’. We were driven through the Volvo cars production factory on a guided tour, where we saw 1400 ABB industrial robots in their prime, assembling the trademark Swedish vehicles which are then shipped around the world. After lunch we visited the Volvo Brand Experience Center where we explored how Volvo is approaching the transport of the future, such as autonomous, electric vehicles, and learned about their ceaseless efforts to maintain and raise the bar on vehicle safety. We then learned about the robotics in Volvo production, and their electrification strategy, followed by a fika and mingle with Volvo trainees.
We spent the weekend exploring the lovely city of Gothenburg and returned home with a new appreciation of ABB products and their function in keeping industry moving forward – from power generation to the next generation of cars on the roads!