Industrial IT is the company's patented concept for linking products and services together with the information needed to install, operate, and maintain them. ABB has achieved base level Industrial IT certification for its full range of products, including instrumentation, motors, drives, robotics, transformers, switchgear and low-voltage products.
"ABB's single information framework is transforming our product portfolio into a system of integrated building blocks," said Markus Bayegan, ABB's chief technology officer. "By linking power and automation products and services this way, we can sharply increase our customers' competitiveness and speed up deployment of integrated product and service solutions."
ABB's Industrial IT is an information framework based on open industry standards. It links ABB's automation and power technology products so they are easier to configure, install, operate and maintain in real time. The company has commissioned about 600 automation systems, which use the new product information standard, and is rolling out about 40 new systems per month. Leading Industrial IT customers include The Dow Chemical Company, Visy Industries, Bechtel National and ExxonMobil.
Uniform electronic tools in all Industrial IT Enabled products mean they can be more easily documented, configured and connected than previous devices. The tools are bundled in a patented software shell called an Aspect Object. When this software is copied and pasted into a customer's power or automation system, a "virtual" replica of the real product is deployed for use. Arranged in hierarchical fashion, these replicas allow the operator of an electrical grid, power plant or factory to retrieve product instructions, drawings, maintenance records and other asset management information with a simple mouse click.
ABB tests and certifies technologies for Industrial IT compliance at one of four levels, ranging from presentation of base product information in common electronic formats, to extended aspect data that may be exchanged between components to optimize the system in which they are working.
