ABB Robots Take On Grinding and Deburring

Hand grinding is loud, dusty work. After IMTS 2026's finishing demos, see how an ABB IRB 6700 grinds one-off steel parts at Ancofer and what comes next.

INDUSTRIAL ROBOTICS

Chat With Robot

9/24/20261 min read

Castings and cut steel come out rough, covered in burrs and slag. In 1943, workers at Pratt & Letchworth in Buffalo, New York, a foundry making castings for ships and tanks ground each piece smooth by hand, wearing goggles and pressing it against a spinning wheel.

Black and white photo of a worker in goggles grinding a metal casting on a wheel
Black and white photo of a worker in goggles grinding a metal casting on a wheel

A worker grinding a casting by hand at Pratt & Letchworth, Buffalo, in 1943. Photo: Marjory Collins, Library of Congress / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

The job hardly changed for decades. Shipyard and fabrication workers still hold heavy angle grinders overhead in a shower of sparks. It is some of the least popular work in metal shops, and it is one of the hardest to automate, because every part is a little different.

Worker in protective gear holding an angle grinder overhead with sparks flying
Worker in protective gear holding an angle grinder overhead with sparks flying

A shipyard worker grinding a metal surface overhead. Photo: Alan Baribeau, US Navy / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Finishing was a common theme at IMTS 2026 in Chicago last week. KUKA and a partner showed a mobile robot carrying heavy castings to a robotic finishing cell, and abrasives makers such as Weiler brought products designed for automated deburring.

Silver pendants on a workbench next to a rotary polishing tool
Silver pendants on a workbench next to a rotary polishing tool

Hand polishing tools and silver pendants in a jeweller's workshop. Photo: Mauro Cateb / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

ABB has a well-documented example of its own. At German steel service center Ancofer, integrator Teqram built an EasyGrinder cell around an ABB IRB 6700. The robot picks each flame-cut part from a pallet, scans it in 3D, grinds off burrs and slag, flips it and stacks it on another pallet. ABB says the robot's extra power also speeds up the work and uses less abrasive than a person does.

White ABB industrial robot grinding a round steel part with sparks flying
White ABB industrial robot grinding a round steel part with sparks flying

An ABB IRB 6700 grinding a steel part in Teqram's EasyGrinder cell at Ancofer. Photo: ABB

Because the vision system recognises each part, Ancofer can run short batches and even one-off parts without reprogramming the robot. ABB's force control software keeps grinding and polishing pressure constant, and the Machining PowerPac in RobotStudio plans the tool paths offline.

Overhead view of an ABB robot grinding a steel disc beside pallets of parts
Overhead view of an ABB robot grinding a steel disc beside pallets of parts

The EasyGrinder robot picks parts from pallets, grinds them and stacks them again. Photo: ABB

I expect finishing cells like this to spread to smaller shops as vision gets cheaper and setup gets easier. The same constant-pressure touch could one day let a small arm sand a tabletop or polish silver at home, work people mostly do by hand today.

Worker in a hard hat using a touch screen control panel next to a robot cell
Worker in a hard hat using a touch screen control panel next to a robot cell

An operator runs the Ancofer grinding cell from a control screen. Photo: ABB

Innovation

AI solutions for effortless ABB robot control.

Automation

Robotics

ceojohntran@chatwithrobot.net

+84905311611

© 2025. All rights reserved.

qtran1215@gmail.com

Instagram