Face Mask Manufacturing: ABB Robots and Mask Lines

Face mask manufacturing grew from a small medical trade into a global industry, and it is now one of the most automated jobs in nonwoven converting. A modern surgical mask is three layers of fabric, a nose wire and two ear loops, welded together at machine speed. This post covers how masks were made before robots, how the pandemic pushed mask lines to extreme volume, and where ABB robots such as the IRB 360 FlexPicker and the IRB 660 could sit around the welding machines. I could not confirm an ABB mask line project, so the ABB part is a possibility.

Two health workers in gauze-cotton masks, the design Wu Lien-teh developed for the 1910 plague. Photo: K. Chimin Wong and Wu Lien-teh via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

From gauze and cotton to melt-blown fabric

Surgical masks began in the late 19th century, when surgeons including Jan Mikulicz-Radecki in Breslau and Paul Berger in Paris covered their faces with layers of gauze. In 1910, during a pneumonic plague outbreak in Manchuria and Mongolia, the Chinese-Malaysian epidemiologist Wu Lien-teh improved on the European designs and made a mask from gauze and cotton. International delegates met at the 1911 plague conference in Mukden, and a book by K. Chimin Wong and Wu Lien-teh includes a photograph showing how the gauze-cotton mask should be worn.

Delegates to the International Plague Conference in Mukden, 1911. Photo: Unknown author via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Masks reached the public during the influenza pandemic of 1918. Photographs from the US National Archives show a New York elevator operator, a letter carrier, women tram conductors and a traffic officer wearing gauze masks, one of them dated 16 October 1918. The pictures show masks worn on streets and trams as well as in hospitals, and all of them were cloth products. A cut piece of fabric has to be folded, stitched and tied by hand, and that work set the limit on how many masks anyone could make in a day.

A New York traffic officer directing cars in a gauze mask during the 1918 influenza epidemic. Photo: US National Archives via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

The change came in the 1960s, when modern surgical masks made of melt-blown nonwoven material replaced cloth masks in much of the developed world. A disposable mask is meant to be thrown away after one use, so it needed a continuous production process in place of a sewing table. The filter layer is melt-blown polypropylene. Respirators followed a separate regulatory path in the United States, where the N95 standard took effect in July 1995 under 42 CFR 84. The shift to nonwovens made mask making a job for machines that cut, fold and weld layers.

A disposable three-layer surgical mask with ear loops. Photo: NurseTogether / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Pandemic volume and what the 2026 news says

In 2020 the world ran short of masks, and people turned to home sewing machines while factories tried to scale up. Reifenhäuser, a German maker of nonwoven lines, converted two meltblown test lines to make enough material each day for one million masks, and its chief executive called for a European production chain. In January 2021 the Fraunhofer USA Center for Manufacturing Innovation at Boston University described a machine that makes 35 masks a minute, about 2,000 an hour, and welds the ear loops on while the fabric moves.

Sewing a face mask on a home machine in Czechia, March 2020. Photo: Tadeáš Bednarz / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Mask lines rely on ultrasonic welding. Telsonic describes a fully automated line with ultrasonic stations that cut the nose bridge, weld the mask contour and weld the ear loops on both sides. Sonotronic reports five ultrasonic units that weld three-layer masks, with a rotating embossing roller that forms the seam. The 2026 news is about demand. On 18 September 2026 HHS launched its first department-wide PPE demand forecast, updated quarterly, for items such as surgical masks and respirators under the Make PPE in America Act. In early October, a plague death in Russia's Irkutsk region brought quarantine and mask mandates there.

A packaged 3M 9132 N95 respirator. Photo: ASHillocks / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The welding stations are already automatic, so ABB robots would matter at the ends of the line. An IRB 360 FlexPicker could pick finished masks from a conveyor and place them in dispensers, using PickMaster to track the moving products. An IRB 660 palletizer could stack the cartons at the end, and an IRB 1300 Clean Room version would suit a medical line that needs cleaner handling. See conveyor tracking for how a robot follows a moving belt, and medical device assembly for related regulated production. None of this is a reported mask project.

ABB IRB 360 FlexPicker robots packing small items at high speed. Photo: ABB

Why a mask line is hard to keep busy

A mask is a low-price product, so a line has to run fast and cost little per piece. Any robot must earn its place by keeping the line running or by taking over packing work. The HHS forecast and the Make PPE in America Act exist because domestic makers need a steady demand signal before they buy equipment, and a line without orders earns nothing. A robot can lower the labor in each carton, yet only orders keep a line busy. That is the main open problem for factories: the machines are fast, but the orders are uneven.

An ABB IRB 1300 Clean Room robot. Photo: ABB

The next step is lines that switch quickly between products. A surgical mask, a KN95 style respirator and a cup-shaped N95 need different tooling, fabric and welding patterns. Flexible cells with vision-guided robots could handle changeovers and check seams. RobotStudio can simulate a packing cell and its cycle time before it is built, which lets a small producer test a layout without buying hardware first. Safety also needs planning, since robots, conveyors and ultrasonic horns share a small floor area, and operators need training because a changeover on a line like this is skilled work.

An ABB IRB 660 palletizer stacking cartons at the end of a line. Photo: ABB

For homes, the lesson from 2020 is that supply can fail when demand jumps. Stockpile programs, local mask lines and flexible automation are the tools now being discussed to reduce that risk. The open problems are cost, skilled technicians to run the lines and a steady flow of orders between emergencies. A modest cell with a few robots could pack a mask run on Monday and a different medical product on Thursday, which would keep expensive equipment working outside of crises.

An industrial robot in a clean room at BBS Automation in Blaichach, Germany. Photo: Clemenspool / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

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