Why are ABB’s pressure and differential pressure transmitters less used in the oil refining industry?

It might be due to issues with performance and price, which led to fewer choices when making the selection

The performance is not poor; it’s just that its use in China is not widespread. In China, EJA and ROSEMENT are generally recognized

It’s not that the quality is poor; transmitter technology is mature, and the quality of products manufactured by domestic manufacturers is also reliable. Users have a wide range of choices when it comes to which products to use. To gain customer approval, not only price, quality, and reputation matter – relationships are also very important.....

Which domestic brand offers quality close to that of EJA and similar products?

The performance of each company’s products varies across different industries. ABB’s transmitters hold a significant advantage in industries such as papermaking, but their performance in the petrochemical industry is relatively weak. For example, has anyone of you used the transmitters from Foxboro? They are all used very little, but their performance in China is still excellent. In certain industries, it’s almost impossible to find another company besides Foxboro; as for which industries these are, I’ll keep that secret for now. ABB’s product quality is quite good, though the prices are a bit high.

A batch of pressure and temperature sensors from Foxboro was used in the previous project, but they were not used very often overall – they are quite rare.

ABB’s traditional strength lies in high-voltage electricity; automation equipment is usually used as a complementary component, and it is rare to see ABB promoting automation equipment specifically. I have seen several ABB transmitters with my own eyes, and at least in terms of appearance they are no less superior to those from Rosemount and others. I once left a message on ABB’s official WeChat account to ask about this, and they actually admitted that they had overlooked this aspect in the past; however, no further action was taken. In fact, looking at ABB’s business layout in China, this is indeed the case: ANB China still relies on the electrical switch and transformer factories that were established through initial collaborations with Chinese state-owned enterprises, and there is still a tendency for these factories to operate independently of one another; therefore, it is normal for them to neglect products such as PLCs and transmitters.

I have used ABB pressure transmitters, electromagnetic flowmeters, and positioners in the past, and I found that ABB’s instruments do not offer a good cost-performance ratio.

　　ABB’s transmitters are newcomers to the market, and it will take some time for them to gain a foothold there. 　　ABB was originally involved in power control, and it has only been less than 20 years since it entered the field of automation fully. In the 1990s, I worked on a project involving an ABB DCS; the mainframe hardware was from Foxboro, the control panels were made by Dell, and the field transmitters were of the EJA type… In short, only the system software of the DCS was from ABB. 　　ABB’s transmitters were acquired through mergers and acquisitions, so they lack a strong historical foundation; to compete with EJA and ROSEMONT, it will be difficult to achieve parity without several decades of effort. 　　Among the established control system manufacturers, ROSEMENT and Foxboro have a stronger foundation. Yokogawa’s strength lies in its EJA products. Foxboro’s DCS systems fail to operate properly in China, and as a result they were banned by Sinopec and CNPC for several years; hence their performance in China is poor. 　　EJA, the manufacturer of ROSEMENT pressure sensors, is the original patent holder for the two current mainstream technologies: diffused silicon and capacitive types. Especially ROSEMENT: it charges a fee whenever a product is equipped with a HART communication module.