Helping Mexican industry run leaner and cleaner with sustainable technology

With more than 6000 employees across 15 locations – including eight manufacturing sites – and a presence stretching back to 1947, ABB has become firmly established as a technology leader in Mexico, since its first engagement as a manufacturer of power switches and induction furnaces.

Headquartered in Mexico City, ABB has become a strategic partner for the country, helping equip its industries to meet rapid global advances in technology, energy generation and supply.

Mexico has the second-largest economy in Latin America (USD 1,800bn in 2023) and counts machinery and transport equipment, steel, electrical equipment, chemicals, food products, and petroleum among its major exports.

Numerous ABB technologies have been incorporated to help these industries outrun with leaner and cleaner operations, focusing on smart buildings, smart power, process automation, motors, robotics, and the development of smart solutions.

These are some of our iconic projects in Mexico:

The hidden genius beneath Paseo de la Reforma

Our presence in Mexico encompasses projects of both strategic national importance and those smaller in scale, but nonetheless dear to the national psyche. One such is the electrical overhaul using ABB technology of the Paseo de la Reforma boulevard in Mexico City – although the work is largely underground and therefore hidden from public view.  

In 2018 ABB, working through local distributor Consorcio AMESA, won a $6.4 million contract to install 62 units of Elastimold® switchgear systems along 9.1 miles of the street. Considered maintenance-free because Elastimold® contains no oil or gas to monitor or maintain, the systems are controlled by submersible ABB AbilityTM -enabled REC670 Intelligent Electronic devices for automated system routing and monitoring. 

The project was designed to replace the 70-year-old electric infrastructure with stable, submersible switches in underground vaults that are capable of providing a more reliable power supply to the area.

Mission to Zero™ Nogales

ABB’s transformer plant in Nogales, situated in Mexico’s far north, serves dual purposes: it’s a supplier of components vital to electrification as well as a big-picture demonstration of the benefits of digital transformation. Under our Mission to Zero™ concept, which establishes a path to neutrality in greenhouse gas generation by 2030, the plant has added systems for monitoring and controlling energy consumption. Those analytical systems, in turn, communicate with the ABB Ability™ Energy Manager solution to identify opportunities for reducing energy use.

The savings, along with measures such as the installation of 130 solar panels in the plant’s parking lot, enabled ABB Nogales to deliver emissions reductions of 86 percent. It also offers inherent sustainability advantages, by bringing manufacturing efficiencies closer to North American customers as part of the recent trend toward nearshoring.

ABB Nogales is one of two Mission to Zero™ sites in Mexico, the other being our Saltillo facility. 

Driving energy efficiency in Mexico’s pulp and paper industry

One of the leading global suppliers of paper-based packaging, Smurfit Kappa, is to benefit from ABB technology at its Cerro Gordo mill near Mexico City. Our ABB Ability™ System 800xA® distributed control system (DCS) will be installed at the site, accompanied by a comprehensive paper machine drives system, encompassing some of the market’s most advanced drives and motors, meticulously designed to optimize performance.

The project is the first collaboration between ABB and Smurfit Kappa in this region and signals a new era of operational efficiency for one of the packaging producer’s busiest machines in Mexico. The modernization is expected to transform the efficiency and productivity of Paper Machine 5 (PM5 – pictured above).

The ABB technology embedded in the drives, complemented by the control system, will help secure optimum speed and torque control of PM5’s sectional drives for years to come. This is achieved through a combination of factors such as a Direct Torque Control algorithm, which ensures precise control and allows for consistent quality and minimized waste over a long period of time. 

Sustainable public transport in Yucatan with electrified tram system

In Mérida, capital of the Yucatan state, a new electrified tram system depends on ABB charging infrastructure to service a fleet of 105-passenger low-floor buses. Not only will the Ie-Tram buses have conventional overnight charging, they will also refresh the batteries along daytime routes using an overhead connection for “opportunity charging” of four to six minutes at strategic stops on their route.

With an extension of almost 130 kilometers, Ie-Tram connects with the Metropolitan System of Friendly and Sustainable Mobility known as Va y Ven; a system of passenger transportation routes that runs along six axes in more than a dozen routes that cover the entire city.

Climate control for medical clean rooms

Our expertise in sensors, control technology and energy monitoring brought operational improvements and precision to the climate systems installed by Solueza Automation for the clean rooms of a medical equipment company.

Monterrey-based Solueza, an expert in integrated solutions in air conditioning automation (HVAC) services, collaborated with ABB in the installation of an atmospheric air conditioning control system for a medical equipment manufacturing company in the town of Sonora. Our ABB FusionAir® Smart Sensors are used to monitor variables such as temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide concentration, among others, in clean rooms, while enabling efficient control of HVAC equipment. The solution provided the customer with energy savings of around 15% when automating compressors and heat pumps, along with space saving of 20% from the installed devices.

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