ABB opens Helsinki R&D lab

The marine R&D lab, adjacent to ABB’s Azipod factory, will be staffed by 30 engineers as well as being used to demonstrate new products to customers. It will support the company’s developments in fields including automation, remote control systems, propulsion, integrated operations and waste heat recovery systems, and will be able to be used as a simulator centre in the future.

Mikko Lepistö, vice president of software and automation operations at ABB, said: “We are constantly testing and developing new technologies. This laboratory is a wonderful step forward and enables a full range of innovation activities, now that all of our marine systems can be tested and developed in the same place.”

Heikki Soljama, managing director of ABB’s Marine and Ports business unit, added: “R&D is as important as ever for the shipping industry. The challenges facing the whole sector are well documented and now is the time for innovation and new solutions; this lab will help us achieve that goal. Ultimately, though, we will be responding to the needs of the industry and the desire for cost efficiency, reliability and safety will always be key.”

The lab will harness industrial internet solutions – what ABB terms the ‘Internet of Things, Services and People’ – to further develop capabilities for integrated operation between teams and systems on shore and onboard.