Adnkronos Frosinone, November 6 (Adnkronos/Labitalia) – ABB launches the new Sace Emax 3 air circuit breaker on the Italian market, an evolution of ABB's historic range of low-voltage industrial circuit breakers. The result of international collaboration, this innovative product bears the signature of the Bergamo research center, but its development and production took place at the Frosinone plant.
Sace Emax 3 combines versatility, reliability and safety, features designed for the needs of critical infrastructures and large industrial plants.
Today's presentation event at the ABB plant in Frosinone included technical demonstrations, meetings with product specialists, and tours of the factory, an example of Made in Italy quality in digitalization, automation, and sustainability.
The new circuit breaker was created to address the challenges of energy transition and increasing digitalization, ensuring service continuity in energy-intensive environments such as data centers, hospitals, airports, and cutting-edge production sites, as emphasized by Sabina Belli, product marketing director of ABB Electrification Italia: “Sace Emax 3 is a real technological leap forward for energy resilience. We are confident it will help our customers stay ahead of new power needs, protecting critical infrastructure and ensuring business continuity.”
Thanks to high-precision measurement sensors, circuit breaker condition monitoring sensors, and real-time analysis algorithms, the "smart circuit breaker" constantly monitors consumption, system status, and environmental conditions, providing information and recommendations for targeted maintenance activities. This integrated intelligence allows for the shift from reactive to predictive maintenance, reducing the risk of system downtime and improving operational safety.
The three key features of ABB's new circuit breaker are versatility, reliability, and safety, adds Belli. It's versatile because it adapts to any situation and need. Its dimensions and shape remain unchanged from its predecessor, allowing it to be integrated without modifying existing systems. The Ekip Aware trip unit also allows for software and hardware updates to adapt to future needs. Reliability is ensured by highly precise sensors, which allow for real-time visualization of energy data. This data is then transformed into information that can be used to make much more informed decisions. This also facilitates predictive maintenance, with clear advantages in terms of reducing waste and costs. Compared to the previous model, arc flash protection and cyber security have been added to the safety package, making this the first circuit breaker in the world to be certified to Level 2 cyber security.
Sace Emax 3 is in fact the first air circuit breaker in the world to obtain the IEC 62443-4-2 Security Level 2 cybersecurity certification.
The ABB plant in Frosinone, where the new Sace Emax 3 air circuit breaker is manufactured, is one of the world's most advanced production hubs for low-voltage industrial circuit breakers. Recognized as a Lighthouse factory by the Ministry of Business and Made in Italy as part of the Industry 4.0 plan, the site is a global center of excellence for ABB's Smart Power Division.
"The ABB plant in Frosinone is not just a facility that produces electrification products for our customers, but it is also a center of excellence," explains Alessandro Rovardi, director of the ABB plant in Frosinone. "We are talking about a factory that provides our development team with expertise, production lines, and a supply chain, which, together, ensure very rapid and consistently high-quality success."
"The ABB Sace Emax 3 product is highly innovative," Rovardi continues, "ready to meet the global challenges of electrification in the coming years. Innovation has always been one of our cornerstones: we never give up on a challenge, we seize every opportunity, continually improving and investing. Innovation is crucial not only in the product but also on the production lines. Through the incentives we have received for the Lighthouse program, for which we are one of ABB's key plants along with Dalmine and Santa Palomba, we are also beginning to experiment with artificial intelligence on our lines."
With a surface area of almost 50.000 square meters dedicated to operating units, the ABB plant in Frosinone houses 15 advanced production lines, over 270 automated stations and 60 robots, integrated into smart logistics and latest-generation automation processes.
Each year, the plant produces nearly 4 million switches, destined for over 100 countries. The site, which declared ABB Mission to Zero™ in 2023, is powered by 100% electricity from certified renewable energy sources and has a 1.6 MWp photovoltaic system (built under a Power Purchase Agreement – PPA). It was also the first ABB site in the world to achieve UL 2799A Zero Waste to Landfill certification with a platinum rating.
These results demonstrate that Frosinone is not just a production site, but a true incubator of innovation, sustainability, and quality, capable of bringing technological solutions to the world that meet the most complex needs of modern electrification.