ABB to acquire Jokab Safety

16 February 2010

ABB has announced it will acquire 100 per cent of the shares in Jokab Safety International AB (www.jokabsafety.com) for an undisclosed amount. The transaction is expected to be completed in March subject to customary regulatory approvals. The acquisition strengthens ABB’s offering within machine safety and low-voltage products

Mats Linger and Torgny Olsson founded Jokab Safety 1988
Mats Linger and Torgny Olsson founded Jokab Safety 1988

Founded in Sweden in 1988, Jokab Safety develops products and solutions for machine safety. The company is headquartered in Malmö and has around 120 employees worldwide, with a presence in Sweden, USA, Canada, Italy, China, France and UK.

“This investment is fully in line with our strategy to broaden our offering through value-creating acquisitions,” said Tom Sjökvist, head of ABB’s Low Voltage Products division, under which Jokab Safety will reside.

“Through this acquisition both ABB and Jokab will strengthen their total offering. Together we can meet customers’ increasing requirements for low-voltage products and machine safety in a better way.”

With the acquisition ABB’s North America operations will add around 50 new employees.

“We are pleased to have acquired one of the market’s strongest product portfolio within machine safety for manufacturing industries. It means that we can now also provide safety products on top of our already broad product range within low voltage,” said Kirk Goins, Region Division Manager, Low Voltage Products in North America.
 
Pluto Safety PLC

Pluto is Jokab’s "All-Master" safety PLC concept, which is claimed to achieve safety category 4 according to EN 954-1.

All of the PLCs are Master units and can “see” the other PLC inputs, outputs and global memories. This enables one PLC to evaluate the information from the other PLCs and take decisions concerning its own safety. Gateway units are available for several different bus systems such as Profibus and  CanOpen.

Of Pluto´s inputs (the smallest unit has 16 I/O), several inputs can be configured as both inputs and outputs. Most modules have dual safety outputs — potential free or PNP.

In a two-wire bus system up to 32 Pluto units can safely be connected and communicate with a superior system via a Gateway or via HMI displays.

In a maximum extended system 1,472 I/O points can be connected. On all inputs components may be connected in series for even more complexity and optimisation.

Click here to link to a Jokab case study: “Filling Machines Reach Highest Safety Category”
 



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