ABB, a power and automation technologies solutions company headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, has opened a Corporate Research Center (CRC) at its industrial computer control system facility in Wickliffe, Ohio, near Cleveland. The CRC will concentrate on advanced computer process control and robotics to improve the efficiency and capability of industrial plants and electric utilities.Approximately $25 million has been invested in CRC operations in Wickliffe; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Windsor, Connecticut, which perform research and development projects with leading universities, including Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland State University, Carnegie Mellon University, MIT, Stanford University, North Carolina State University and others. Power development work is conducted at the Raleigh location, and robotics at the Windsor site.ABB maintains a network of CRCs around the world that work with leading research universities. The Wickliffe location was selected in part due to is its proximity to major American universities that are pursuing projects that relate to ABB's product lines, which include robots, process control systems, industrial process measurement devices and advanced software programs to monitor and control plant and mill operations. The Wickliffe CRC is also near ABB assembly sites. In addition to the industrial computer control system facility in Wickliffe, ABB also has a robotics assembly operation in Michigan, and an instrumentation assembly operation in Pennsylvania, among other manufacturing facilities in the U.S. and Canada.
