Inhaler Manufacturing: From Mudge's Mug to ABB Robots

Inhaler manufacturing is a field of tiny parts and tight tolerances. A single asthma inhaler holds a canister, a metering valve, a plastic actuator and sometimes a dose counter, and each dose must be the same from the first puff to the last. This post follows the inhaler from a pewter mug in 1778 to the pressurized metered dose inhaler of the 1950s. It covers this year's push toward lower carbon propellants, the ABB clean room and assembly robots that suit the work, and the open questions for factories and patients.

A person holding an asthma inhaler. Photo: NIAID / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

From pewter mugs to the first metered dose inhaler

The first recorded devices were simple. In 1778 John Mudge built a pewter mug inhaler with a flexible tube to deliver opium for coughs. It had no valve, no dose control and no way to make two of them the same. In the 1860s doctors tried better mouthpieces, and by 1872 Mackenzie had refined earlier designs. Before pressurized inhalers, asthma medicine often came from fragile squeeze bulb nebulizers, which produced particles too large to reach deep into the lungs.

A copy of a Squire type ether inhaler, first used in 1846. Photo: Wellcome Collection / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

Riker Laboratories, now a subsidiary of 3M, developed the metered dose inhaler in 1955. It combined a new CFC propellant with the Meshburg metering valve, which had been designed to dispense perfume. By 1956 Riker had two products, the Medihaler-Epi with epinephrine and the Medihaler-Iso with isoprenaline. The pocket sized inhaler gave patients a fixed dose at the press of a button, which the squeeze bulb nebulizer could not do. Today's pressurized inhalers still follow that design.

A puff of aerosol leaving a metered dose inhaler. Photo: Wikip2011 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

The 1987 Montreal Protocol on ozone depleting substances then forced a redesign. The US FDA announced that CFC inhalers such as Primatene Mist would no longer be available after 31 December 2011. Hydrofluoroalkane propellants, or HFAs, replaced CFCs, and the redesign of the 1990s produced smaller aerosol particles. For factories the change meant new formulations, new valves and new filling lines. HFAs are potent greenhouse gases, which has since led to lower impact alternatives, and in 2025 the UK approved the first inhaler using HFO-1234ze(E). In 2019 the FDA approved the first smart inhaler, the Teva ProAir Digihaler.

Primatene Mist packs with the notice that the CFC product would not be available after 31 December 2011. Photo: US Food and Drug Administration / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Precision assembly and the low carbon switch

Today a pressurized inhaler still depends on tight assembly. A metering valve is crimped onto a canister, the canister is filled with drug and propellant, and the unit is fitted into a plastic actuator. Dry powder inhalers, such as the Spiriva HandiHaler, replace the propellant with a capsule and a breath operated mechanism. Both types need clean handling, accurate dosing and inspection, because a small error in a valve or a seal changes the dose a patient inhales. Lines therefore pair assembly with inspection, and every rejected unit is a lost canister of medicine.

Three types of dry powder inhaler. Photo: BrettMontgomery / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The recent news is about propellant. Chiesi said on 3 September 2026 that European submissions for its Fostair and Trimbow inhalers with the HFA-152a propellant had been validated. In July the UK regulator, the MHRA, approved Chiesi's Clenil Modulite beclometasone inhalers with HFA-152a, which Chiesi describes as the world's first authorization of a pressurized inhaler using that propellant. Chiesi estimates the switch could cut the carbon footprint of its inhalers by up to 90 percent, and it expects UK approval of the others in the first half of 2027.

A Ventolin HFA inhaler, a pressurized metered dose inhaler using an HFA propellant. Photo: MisterNarwhal / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

ABB does not report making inhaler lines, and we found no source that says so. Its robots do suit the steps. The IRB 1300 Clean Room version is built for controlled environments, the dual arm YuMi IRB 14000 handles small parts, and the IRB 360 FlexPicker can load items fast on a line. A GoFa CRB 15000 can work beside a person at a packing or inspection station. Cells like these are usually planned and checked in RobotStudio before anyone builds them, so cycle time and reach are known in advance.

An ABB IRB 1300 Clean Room robot. Photo: ABB

Smarter, greener and more flexible lines

The next generation of inhalers will change the line again. A new propellant can mean a different valve, a different seal and different leak tests, so a factory has to adapt without a long shutdown. Flexible cells that can switch between product versions are easier to adapt than a fixed machine built for a single design. Smart inhalers add sensors and electronics to a product that used to be plastic and metal. That moves part of the work toward the electronics assembly seen in medical device assembly, where small circuit boards, batteries and housings are put together and tested.

An Easyhaler dry powder inhaler for salbutamol. Photo: Sadenayttely / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Related pharmaceutical lines show how this could work. In autoinjector and pen assembly, robots handle springs, needles and plastic housings with strict traceability. The syringe manufacturing post and the blister packing post show handling of glass, plastic and sealed packs. Inhaler lines could reuse the same ideas of fixtures, vision inspection and records for each unit. A GoFa or YuMi cell can be moved to a new product by changing the grippers and the program, which suits a maker that launches new propellant versions. Any such plan for ABB is a possibility only.

ABB YuMi assembling small parts beside a lab worker. Photo: ABB

Drug makers have to validate a process before it makes medicine, so a new robot cell has to be proven first, and a change to a valve or propellant can send a line back through testing. Cost matters too, because each unit is a small, cheap device made in very large numbers, so a cell has to run fast and stay up for long stretches. Safety and cleanliness rules limit how people and machines share space. Skilled engineers who can program, validate and maintain a cell remain scarce. Reliable lines matter most to patients, who need the same dose every time they press the canister.

An ABB GoFa CRB 15000 cobot at a work table. Photo: ABB

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