ABB commissions ACS560 drives at Bharat Biotech for safe Covaxin production

"We have commissioned these locally manufactured drives (ACS560 drives) in collaboration with our channel partner Microsys Automation at Bharat Biotech's Hyderabad facility," said ABB India President (Drive Products) A R Madhusudan said in a statement.

He added that since domestic production of medicine and vaccines has become imperative at this stage of the pandemic, the company's endeavour is to support its customers and other stakeholders with its products and solutions and ease the process.

Madhusudan also stated that part of ABB's all-compatible drives portfolio, the ACS560 drive is easy to commission, use and enables higher productive use of energy.

The drives are also installed at other pharmaceutical companies in India, which are manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines for the country, he added.

Manufacturing of vaccines is a complex process and needs a clean room environment to deliver the desired output, Madhusudan added.

Clean room manufacturing environments are utilised as part of specialised industrial production or scientific research, and require high levels of flexibility, safety, and performance.

Proper temperature, humidity, airflow, air pressure (positive or negative), and other conditions are mandatory to provide a safe vaccine without any risk of contamination.

ABB's ACS560 drives are playing a vital role in Bharat Biotech's clean room infrastructure, where the company manufactures Covaxin, India's first indigenous vaccine against COVID-19.

Bharat Biotech supplied 20 million doses for the national vaccination roll-out in April and is targeting to produce 700 million doses per year.

One of the most critical aspects of clean room HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) systems is air filtration. Not only do these systems control temperature, humidity, and air pressure, they also control the ventilation within the clean room, including the direction, speed, and filtration of air as it flows into and out of the space.

The inbuilt application functions of ABB drives help in maintaining the right environmental condition at Bharat Biotech's vaccine manufacturing facility. It also helps in saving energy by running the motors at partial loads.

ABB India's channel partner, Microsys Automation, has supplied and commissioned the drives.

Manufactured at ABB India's Peenya facility, the scalable, user-friendly and reliable design of ACS560 ensures effortless commissioning and operation in challenging conditions.