Luggage Manufacturing: From Trunks to ABB Robots

A modern hard-shell suitcase looks simple: two plastic halves, a zipper, a handle and four wheels. Behind that sits a factory that molds the shells, trims them, fits the hardware and checks each case before it ships. This post follows luggage manufacturing from wooden trunks to polycarbonate shells, looks at what the industry made news with this autumn, and asks where ABB robots such as the IRB 4400, IRB 6700 and IRB 1200 could take on the loading, trimming and assembly work, and what holds factories back.

Vintage and modern Rimowa suitcases on display in the Rimowa museum in Cologne. Photo: Raimond Spekking / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

How trunks turned into suitcases

The suitcase appeared with mass tourism in the late 1800s, first to carry dress suits. Early versions were heavy leather or steel, and the large trunks before them were built by hand on wooden frames, with leather or canvas covers, metal corners and brass locks. A trunk like the one kept at the Sigmund Freud museum shows the method: wooden slats, riveted straps and hand-fitted latches. Every trunk was made one at a time, and no two fitted exactly alike, which is the opposite of what a robot cell needs.

A wooden-ribbed travel trunk at the Sigmund Freud museum. Photo: Slyronit / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Weight pushed the change from trunks to lighter cases. A 1938 US limit of 40 pounds on checked bags helped drive makers toward plastic and cardboard, and in 1950 Rimowa built the first aluminum suitcase. Wheels came slowly. Anita Willets-Burnham made the first recorded wheeled suitcase in 1928, but Bernard D. Sadow's version, sold at Macy's from October 1970 and patented in 1972, was the one that spread. Cases were still stitched, glued and riveted by people at benches, and a skilled worker could finish only so many in a day.

Betty Ford's travel trunk, from around the 1940s. Photo: via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Robert Plath, a pilot, invented the upright two-wheeled Rollaboard in 1987, and it largely replaced Sadow's flat design. Rimowa made the first polycarbonate suitcases in 2000, and in 2004 Samsonite introduced the first four-wheeled spinner. Each change added parts, such as wheel housings, telescoping handles and locks, and the factory had more steps to control. A leather case from a 1939 Finnish maker, Veljekset Åström Oy, looks plain beside them, with two latches and a handle and no moving parts.

A leather suitcase made by Veljekset Astrom Oy in Finland, photographed in 1939. Photo: Finnish Heritage Agency via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

Hard shells, molding and the factory floor today

Today most hard-shell cases begin as resin pellets. One manufacturer's guide says the pellets are dried, colored and mixed with UV stabilizers and impact modifiers before molding, and that polycarbonate shells are injection molded: heated plastic is injected into a mold, then cooled and removed. That is one company's description, but it matches how many plastic parts are made. Samsonite runs factories such as its Hungaria plant in Szekszard, Hungary, and the shells it molds go on to be fitted with wheels, handles and locks in the same plant or nearby.

The Samsonite Hungaria factory in Szekszard, Hungary, in 2016. Photo: Globetrotter19 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

On 1 October 2026 Samsonite Group completed its acquisition of BÉIS, the travel brand founded by Shay Mitchell in 2018. A market report published by IndexBox on 5 October says premium products and smart features are driving growth in suitcases and travel bags. Those trends make the factory's job harder, since more models, colors and features mean shorter runs and more changeovers between them, and every changeover costs time. Injection molding machines such as an Arburg Allrounder produce the shells, and someone, or something, has to take each one out of the mold.

An Arburg Allrounder injection molding machine at a trade show in 2026. Photo: Bricetofly / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

That is where industrial robots come in. ABB has not announced a luggage product or a luggage customer, so this is a possibility. ABB does supply robots for plastics plants: an ABB IRB 4400 unloads parts from an ENGEL injection molding machine in a Spanish plant. The same job applies to shells, with the robot lifting each one out, placing it on a conveyor and keeping the cycle steady. Cells like this are normally designed and checked in RobotStudio, and our guide to ABB robots in injection molding covers the details.

An ABB IRB 4400 unloads parts from an ENGEL injection molding machine in a Spanish plant. Photo: ABB

What comes next on the luggage line

After molding, shells need trimming, drilling for rivets and handles, and cleaning. A larger arm such as the IRB 6700, which ABB has used for heavy grinding in a Teqram EasyGrinder cell at Ancofer, shows the class of robot that could hold a shell against a cutter. It also lifts large loads: in one ABB example an IRB 6700 moves a solar module at dhp technology. A shell is light by comparison, so smaller arms like the IRB 1200 and cobots like the GoFa could handle shells, wheels and handles, which would leave the big arm for heavy jobs such as moving stacks of molded halves.

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

Assembly is harder. Fitting a zipper, sewing a lining, riveting a handle and clipping on wheels all involve soft or awkward parts, and many luggage makers still do this by hand. Vision-guided arms and force sensing can help, but luggage comes in many sizes, so a cell must switch between models quickly. Safety matters when staff load shells beside moving arms, so cells need guarding or collaborative arms that stop on contact. Skills are another gap, because a plant needs people who can program and maintain a robot cell, and small factories often lack them.

An ABB IRB 6700 lifts a solar module for a folding roof at dhp technology. Photo: ABB

For travelers the change would show up in price and quality, with more consistent shells and fewer misaligned wheels, though that depends on how much of the line a maker automates and on whether it passes the savings on. Premium makers such as Rimowa, which has a production and warehouse building in Cologne, may keep more manual steps, so full automation will not suit every brand. For the history of luggage that follows you around on its own, see our post on the robot suitcase.

The Rimowa production and warehouse building in Cologne. Photo: 1971markus / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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