ABB Cobots on the Lines That Build Your Fridge

From hand-built 1940s fridges to cobot testing: how ABB YuMi and GoFa check refrigerators at Electrolux, and where appliance robots are heading next.

INDUSTRIAL ROBOTICS

Chat With Robot

9/23/20261 min read

Household appliances have come off assembly lines for about a century, but people did the fiddly parts for most of that time. A 1947 photo of an Electrolux factory shows long benches of workers welding and fitting parts by hand, with sparks flying at every station.

Black and white photo of factory workers welding at long benches with sparks flying
Black and white photo of factory workers welding at long benches with sparks flying

Workers welding parts at an Electrolux factory in 1947. Photo: Tekniska museet / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

Testing stayed manual for decades. Someone had to walk a sniffer along every refrigerant joint to find gas leaks, then clip leads onto each unit for the electrical tests. It is dull, repetitive work, and hard to do perfectly on every fridge across a long shift.

Two workers in lab coats moving a white refrigerator cabinet on a factory floor
Two workers in lab coats moving a white refrigerator cabinet on a factory floor

Workers handling refrigerators at a French plant, mid-20th century. Photo: U.S. Agency for International Development via DPLA (public domain)

Appliance makers are now putting robots and AI through whole plants. On September 1, public radio reported on GE Appliances' Roper plant in Georgia, where a $180 million expansion more than tripled robot use. Robots there fit glass cooktops onto metal frames while AI-powered cameras watch for assembly mistakes.

Technician holding a teach pendant next to an ABB robot and refrigerators on a line
Technician holding a teach pendant next to an ABB robot and refrigerators on a line

An Electrolux technician beside an ABB cobot on the refrigerator test line in Curitiba. Photo: ABB

ABB's cobots handle the inspection side. At Electrolux's refrigerator plant in Curitiba, Brazil, a YuMi cobot took over gas leak detection, and that check is now fully automated. Electrolux later added a GoFa CRB 15000 at the electrical test station, which had been causing unplanned stops.

White ABB GoFa CRB 15000 cobot arm with a gripper reaching into the back of a refrigerator
White ABB GoFa CRB 15000 cobot arm with a gripper reaching into the back of a refrigerator

An ABB GoFa CRB 15000 connecting test equipment to a refrigerator. Photo: ABB

ABB says productivity in testing rose more than 68 percent, and the operators who used to repeat those checks moved to safer jobs. Cobots can work next to people without safety fences, so they fit into existing lines where there is little spare floor space.

ABB cobot mounted on a test station with a control panel and FlexPendant
ABB cobot mounted on a test station with a control panel and FlexPendant

The cobot test station at Electrolux's Curitiba plant. Photo: ABB

The fridge in your kitchen probably went through checks like these before it shipped. I expect the next appliance-related robots to show up in the kitchen itself, as home robots that load the dishwasher or unpack groceries into the fridge. They will probably be built and tested on lines much like Curitiba's.

Modern kitchen with white cabinets, wall ovens and a dark stone countertop
Modern kitchen with white cabinets, wall ovens and a dark stone countertop

A home kitchen full of appliances that were built and tested on factory lines. Photo: XanderL / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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