Estonia’s manufacturing sector is up for a new success story. ABB, a multinational industrial giant, is preparing to expand its motor and generator manufacturing capabilities at its facility in Jüri, North Estonia. The expansion will enable the production of motors with up to 60MW capacity, a significant leap from their current 5MW production limit.
“This is a remarkable advancement in our production capabilities,” says Argo Aavik, head of ABB Estonia’s motors and generators business unit. “To put this in perspective, the main propulsion electric motors of Tallink Group’s shuttle vessels Megastar and MyStar are 20MW in capacity, and we’ll now be able to produce motors three times that size.”
Also, for comparison, a typical passenger car engine produces about 0.1MW (100kW), and one of the new Estonian-made motors will be as powerful as 600 cars combined.
New centre of industry
Recently, ABB finished consolidating production from Finland to Estonia. This makes ABB’s Estonian factory a major competence centre for the company’s active components manufacturing – including rotors and stators. The expansion project is already halfway complete and is scheduled to be fully operational by March 2025.
This consolidation will make the Estonian facility the largest producer of motor and generator active components in Europe. The decision to concentrate production in Estonia was based on several factors:
- Existing expertise in both induction and synchronous machines
- Process optimisation opportunities
- Improved inventory management
- More efficient equipment and workforce utilisation
In other words, Estonia is the place to be if you are in the high-tech industry of the modern era. The expansion includes significant technological upgrades to handle the larger-scale production:
- Crane lifting capacity will increase from the current 15 tons to up to 70 tons
- New production lines specifically designed for larger components
- Special logistics solutions for land and sea transport between Estonia and Finland
- Enhanced safety management systems to accommodate increased production volumes
The facility has already achieved its first milestone by producing a prototype – the AMZ2000 stator core, which significantly exceeds the dimensions of previous AMZ1600 models.
A trusted partner
ABB is a global technology leader in electrification and automation, helping to build a more sustainable and resource-efficient future. With more than 140 years of history and over 105,000 employees worldwide, ABB continues to drive industrial transformation through innovative solutions.
In Estonia, ABB’s operations span four main areas: sales, manufacturing, maintenance services, and business services, providing solutions to both local and international markets through the ABB Group network. The company has been operating in Estonia since 1992 and has received the “Foreign Investor of the Year” award five times, as well as being among the first winners of the “Outstanding Foreign Investment Awards” from Invest Estonia.
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