Bowling Pinsetter History: Pin Boys to ABB Robots

A bowling pinsetter is the automatic machine behind the lane that clears fallen pins, sets a fresh rack and sends your ball back. Most bowlers never look at it, although it took over a job that used to belong to boys. This post follows that job from the pin boys who reset pins by hand, through the first mechanical pinsetters AMF and Brunswick sold in the 1950s, to the string pinsetters bowling centres are putting in this autumn. Along the way it covers where robots already work in bowling, where ABB robots could help make the equipment, and what still holds the machines back in homes and in commercial centres.

Pins resting in an AMF 82-70 pinspotter behind a bowling lane. Photo: Alain106 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

How pin boys set the lanes before the machines

For most of bowling's history, people did the resetting. Alleys hired boys and young men, the pin boys, who sat at the end of the lane, picked up the fallen pins, stood them back on their spots and rolled the ball back to the player. Much of this work was done by children, often late at night. Around 1910 and 1911 the photographer Lewis Hine documented pin boys for the National Child Labor Committee, some of them ten or eleven years old. A few places still work this way. Holler House in Milwaukee, open since September 1908, still uses hand-filled Brunswick table units.

Pin boys at work in a bowling alley, photographed by Lewis Hine for the National Child Labor Committee in 1910. Photo: Lewis Hine / Library of Congress via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Inventors tried to get rid of the pin boy long before anyone managed it. US patents from the mid-1800s describe pins with round bases that tipped over and were turned upright again (1851), pins tied by cords to weights under the pin deck (1853), and pins hung from overhead cords (1869). None of them caught on. What did spread was a halfway step. On semi-automatic machines such as the Brunswick B-1 and B-10, a pin boy filled a table by hand and then lowered it, so every pin landed on its exact spot. Resetting got quicker and more accurate, but somebody still had to sit behind the pins.

Brunswick semi-automatic pinsetters on historic lanes at the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame, 2019. Photo: Michael Barera / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The first fully mechanical pinsetter came from Gottfried (Fred) Schmidt, who sold his patent, US 2,208,605, to American Machine and Foundry (AMF) in 1941. AMF started marketing its pinspotter in 1952, and it became the first machine used in large numbers. A belt in the pit carried pins to a revolving elevator, and a spotting table lowered them onto the deck. In May 1953 AMF added "pindicator" lights showing which pins were still standing. Brunswick brought out its Model A in 1956, then the A2 in 1962 and the JetBack in 1965. Pin boys disappeared, and centres hired a mechanic, the pinchaser, to clear jams instead.

The masking unit of an old Brunswick pinsetter with its crown logo and pin display. Photo: Yuccavalerie / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

String pinsetters and the robots in bowling today

Above the pins, the hardware is changing again. A string pinsetter ties a cord to the head of each pin. After every ball the machine pulls all ten pins up into a frame and lowers the ones that were still standing. Five-pin bowling in Canada has used string machines for decades. In the United States they first showed up in bars, family entertainment centres and private homes, then spread to traditional bowling centres in the 2020s. In April 2023 the United States Bowling Congress (USBC) said it would certify string pinsetters as a separate category of equipment from August 2023, with a minimum cord length so the pins fall closer to the way free pins do.

A lane at a modern bowling centre with a full rack of pins at the far end, 2012. Photo: Alan Levine / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

Eagle River Bowl near Anchorage is one centre making the switch. On 16 September 2026 Alaska's News Source reported that the alley is getting a full remodel this fall, with string pinsetters, new machines and a new scoring system. Owner Dan Graeber said the old equipment has been in place for 30 to 40 years and that its parts are no longer made. "It's all electronic," he said of the new setup, which he expects to give a truer set of the pins. Bowlers will book lanes and add time at a kiosk, and eight lanes at a time will be closed during October while crews do the work.

Rows of pinsetting machines behind the lanes at a bowling centre in Tamachi, Tokyo, 2015. Photo: Ken OHYAMA / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Robots do have one job in bowling already, and it is testing. At its International Training and Research Center in Arlington, Texas, the USBC uses E.A.R.L., the Enhanced Automated Robotic Launcher built by ARM Automation, to throw balls with the same speed and spin over and over. It pairs a linear axis with a five-axis robot and rolls balls at 10 to 24 mph with rev rates from 50 to 900 rpm. We found no ABB robot that sets pins and no ABB project in bowling. The factories that make pins and machines look more promising. Sanding wooden parts is work ABB's GoFa CRB 15000 cobots already do in ABB's OmniVance finishing cell, and maple pins need the same kind of sanding.

A GoFa cobot sands a curved wooden panel with a Mirka sander inside ABB's OmniVance finishing cell. Photo: ABB

Where automatic pinsetters go next

Painting could be a second fit. Pins get glossy coats and red neck stripes in a finishing shop, and ABB built its IRB 5500 paint robots to spray car bodies evenly in explosive paint booth air. We did not find a pin maker using one, so treat this as a possibility. A cell for small batches like these is usually laid out and tested offline first, in software such as RobotStudio, so the robot paths are checked before any lacquer is sprayed. Our post on ABB robot use cases shows the range of jobs these same arms already do.

An ABB IRB 5500 paint robot, a design built to work in explosive paint booth air. Photo: ABB

The frames of new pinsetters are welded steel, which is where cobot welding might come in. ABB sells a GoFa arc welding package that a welder teaches by moving the torch by hand, a setup meant for shops that build small batches. Simpler string machines also make home lanes more realistic. In June 2026 Funk Bowling wrote that homeowners increasingly want recreation spaces beyond the home theatre or gym, and bowling lanes are one of them. On 18 September 2026 Australasian Leisure Management reported a new strategic partnership between C.H.E. Group and Funk Bowling.

ABB's GoFa Cobot Arc Welding Package on a welding table. Photo: ABB

Bowlers are split on strings, because cords change how pins scatter. The USBC found slightly lower averages on string machines, even though its studies showed no statistically significant difference in scoring pace. Safety is another open question. Bowling staff have been killed in pinsetter machinery over the years, so any robot working near a lane would need guarding and speed limits, which is what ABB's SafeMove software handles in factories. Graeber's trouble finding parts for his old machines points to the last problem: every centre still needs someone who can fix whatever it runs whether the machines are fifty years old or brand new.

A worker in the pinsetter area behind the lanes at the McMurdo Station bowling alley in Antarctica, 2000. Photo: Jeff Inglis / Antarctic Sun via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

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