Electric Kettle Manufacturing: ABB Robots on the Line

Electric kettle manufacturing looks simple from the kitchen, because a jug, a heater and a switch hardly seem to need a factory. In practice each kettle joins a pressed or glass body, a sealed heating element, a thermal control, a base, a cord and a lid, and every unit must be tested for leaks and electrical safety. This post follows the kettle from the first electric pots of 1891 to the automatic Russell Hobbs K1 of 1955, then looks at this month's news and at where ABB robots such as the IRB 1700 and YuMi could fit on a line.

A Russell Hobbs Millennium kettle from 1996, a modern automatic electric kettle. Photo: Science Museum Group / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

How the kettle learned to heat itself and switch itself off

The first electric kettles are credited to the Carpenter Electric company in 1891, and drawings of its coffee pot and teapot survive. They were novelties, and the design had a flaw. In 1892 Crompton and Company showed a working kettle whose element sat in a compartment under the water, because the element could not be put in the water itself. That wasted heat, and the design was inefficient. Until then water had gone on a stove or range.

Drawings of an electric coffee pot and teapot from the Carpenter Electric Heating Company, 1893. Photo: Carpenter Electric Heating Co. via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Two changes made the kettle practical. In 1902 Premier Electric Heaters sold the Archer, a luxury kettle with the element sealed into its base and one of the first boil safe devices. In 1922 Bulpitt and Sons, working with engineer Leslie Large, introduced a wire wound element inside a metal tube that could sit directly in the water. Heat went straight into the water. Kettles have followed that idea since, and a modern element is rated at roughly 2 to 3 kW.

A coiled heating element at the bottom of a modern electric kettle. Photo: Meganbeckett27 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

The remaining problem was boiling dry. In 1955 Russell Hobbs launched the K1, described as the first fully automatic kettle. Steam heated a bimetallic strip that cut the current when the water boiled, and the switch tripped below 100 degrees Celsius, so it also worked at altitude. A 1947 photograph from an Electrolux plant shows rows of workers welding parts by hand, with sparks flying across the benches, which gives a sense of how appliance work was done before robots.

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

What a kettle line looks like in October 2026

The kettle is still being reinvented. On October 8 Crompton in India launched the InstaNourish Pro, a 1.2 litre, 600 W kettle priced at 2,700 rupees that is sold as a way to sear, steam and boil in one unit. It comes with a glass lid and a steamer basket, which means more parts to fit on a line. Trade news matters too: US and Chinese officials recommended tariff cuts on about 30 billion dollars of goods each on September 28, and the US list includes small appliances such as coffee makers and toasters. Kettles were not named in the reports I read.

An electric table kettle of the kind sold for everyday boiling and now often built into multi function models. Photo: MASA / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Inside the base of an ordinary kettle sit a heating element, a thermal control with its contacts, a cord socket and wiring. Fitting them is repetitive work with small parts, and the welds, seals and screws must be consistent because the product holds boiling water next to mains power. Stovetop kettles are mostly stainless steel, and electric ones often use stainless, plastic or glass. Each material needs a different step: forming and polishing the steel, moulding the plastic, sealing the glass to its base. A line has to switch between these bodies as the models change.

The underside of an electric kettle with its thermal control, contacts and wiring exposed. Photo: L.Willms / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

I found no source that names ABB on a kettle line, so what follows is a possibility. The IRB 1700 family that ABB launched at CIIF in Shanghai in October has five variants with payloads from 6 to 12 kg. ABB lists a path repeatability of 0.03 mm, joint speeds up to 700 degrees per second and up to 15 percent less power than the IRB 1600. Its listed uses include arc welding, sanding, deburring and machine tending. The IRB 1700ID routes cables inside the arm, which helps in a small weld cell where a torch hose would otherwise catch on the fixture.

An ABB IRB 1700ID with a welding torch and wire feeder at its public debut at CIIF in Shanghai, October 2026. Photo: ABB

Where kettle and small appliance lines go next

A stainless steel body leaves the press with edges and weld seams that someone must finish. An IRB 1700 on a sanding or polishing station could hold the body against the belt at a steady angle and pressure, which a person does by feel. That is the kind of job that wears people out and gives uneven results across a shift. Programs for such a cell are normally built and tested first in RobotStudio, so the path is proven on a screen before any steel is touched.

An ABB IRB 1700 in a sanding demonstration at the China International Industry Fair, October 2026. Photo: ABB

The small parts are a different job. A single arm YuMi IRB 14050 is built for small part assembly, and a GoFa CRB 15000 can load a machine and be taught by hand. Either could seat a thermostat into a base, route two wires into connectors or feed screws to a driver. Other appliance lines already use cobots, as the post on ABB cobots on the lines that build your fridge shows. ABB also introduced an E-Device that lets staff program robots from their own tablets and PCs, which suits a plant that changes models often.

A single arm ABB YuMi IRB 14050 in its cell on GE Healthcare's prototype line in Helsinki. Photo: ABB

For homes, the trend is more functions in the same jug, so kettles grow more complex parts, and a glass body like the Bosch shown here adds a sealing step that steel does not need. Cost is the pressure on factories, and tariffs could change which countries build them. Safety remains fixed: every unit has to boil, shut off and pass electrical tests. The scarce skill is the technician who can set up and maintain a cell. The same story is told for the metal side in the cookware manufacturing post.

A glass bodied Bosch electric kettle with a steel base plate, showing how many materials one kettle joins. Photo: Jacek Halicki / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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