ABB Robots in Bicycle Making: Hand Frames to Robot Welds

From Gazelle's 1946 bicycle factory to robot welding and automated painting in today's bike plants, and how ABB welding robots and GoFa cobots build frames.

INDUSTRIAL ROBOTICS

Chat With Robot

9/25/20261 min read

In March 1946, photographers from the Dutch Anefo agency toured the Gazelle bicycle factory in Dieren. In one picture, finished frames stand stacked beside a workbench while a man in an apron works nearby. Building a frame then meant cutting, fitting and joining steel tubes largely by hand.

Black and white photo of a workshop with stacked bicycle frames and a worker in an apron
Black and white photo of a workshop with stacked bicycle frames and a worker in an apron

Bicycle frames stacked in the Gazelle factory in Dieren, March 1946. Photo: Anefo / Nationaal Archief via Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

Final assembly was just as manual. In another shot from that day, a worker fits the lamp to a nearly finished bike hanging from a hook. Machines later took over tube cutting and some welding, but wheel building, fitting and much of the frame work stayed with skilled people for decades.

Black and white photo of a man in glasses attaching a lamp to a bicycle hanging from a hook
Black and white photo of a man in glasses attaching a lamp to a bicycle hanging from a hook

A worker fits the lamp to a new Gazelle bicycle, 1946. Photo: Anefo / Nationaal Archief via Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

In September, Bike Europe looked at how that is changing. Gazelle now pairs modern assembly with automated painting. At Ananda's factory in Wuxi, automated vehicles carry parts between stations on three floors, and the Dutch maker van Raam does its own robotic frame welding. A prototype at Eurobike 2026 even combined hub filling and spoke lacing into one step.

Trade fair stand with bicycles displayed on podiums and walls
Trade fair stand with bicycles displayed on podiums and walls

Bicycles and e-bikes on display at Eurobike 2024 in Frankfurt. Photo: Matti Blume / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

ABB robots already do this kind of work. The IRB 1520ID welding robot runs its cables inside the arm, so it can reach around tight frame joints, and ABB has shown it welding bicycle frames. The Italian bike maker Veloe says its ABB welding robot, using Fronius cold metal transfer, cut its welding time in half.

Orange ABB welding robot next to an orange positioner holding a steel part
Orange ABB welding robot next to an orange positioner holding a steel part

An ABB arc welding robot with a positioner. Photo: Ana / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Welded frames still need paint, and ABB paint robots already handle that in car plants. Smaller frame builders could start with ABB's GoFa cobot arc welding package, where a welder guides the arm by hand to teach each seam instead of writing a program.

Row of white ABB paint robots with hoses above a car body in a paint booth
Row of white ABB paint robots with hoses above a car body in a paint booth

ABB paint robots in a car body paint booth. Photo: ABB

I think this could move bike making closer to the people who ride them. A small workshop with one cobot could weld a frame sized to a particular rider and have it ready within days, which is something mass production in faraway factories can't easily offer.

Welder in gloves guiding the torch on a white ABB GoFa cobot over a welding table
Welder in gloves guiding the torch on a white ABB GoFa cobot over a welding table

Teaching a weld seam by hand with ABB's GoFa Cobot Arc Welding Package. Photo: ABB

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