Office Chair Manufacturing: From Darwin to ABB Robots

How office chair manufacturing grew from Darwin's wheeled study chair to the Aeron and robot-welded frames, and where ABB GoFa, IRB 1600 and IRB 660 robots fit.

INDUSTRIAL ROBOTICS

Chat With Robot

10/19/20265 min read

Office chair manufacturing looks simple from the outside: a seat, a back, a column and a base on wheels. Inside the factory it is a mix of pressed and welded steel, molded foam, injection molded plastic and sewn fabric, and at one Japanese plant the last stage is still done by hand. This post follows the chair from the first swivel seats of the 1800s to today's mesh models. It then looks at where ABB robots such as the GoFa, the IRB 1600 and the IRB 660 fit in seat and frame work, and what stops robots from taking over the whole line.

Grey mesh Aeron office chair on casters beside a desk with a computer

A Herman Miller Aeron chair at a desk, the mesh design launched in 1994. Photo: Robert from Zoetermeer / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

From swivel seats to the factory chair

The idea of a swiveling chair on castors is old: Nuremberg patrician Martin Loffelholz von Kolberg drew one in 1505. Charles Darwin put wheels on the chair in his study so he could reach his specimens faster. The office chair proper came in the mid 19th century, when railways let businesses grow and clerks needed seats built for long hours at a desk. In 1849 Thomas E. Warren designed the Centripetal Spring Armchair, made by the American Chair Company in Troy, New York, and shown at the 1851 Great Exhibition in London.

Black and white photo of an old upholstered armchair on iron castors with a desk board across its arms

Charles Darwin's wheeled study chair at Down House. Photo: Wellcome Collection via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

Early chairs had wooden saddle seats and slatted backs. A photograph from May 1940 in the US National Archives shows workers bending chair backs by hand in a workshop. Heavy duty office chairs later moved to durable metal structure, and the modern chair uses a single load bearing leg called a gas lift, under the seat, with a lever to adjust its height. Heavy duty chairs use durable metal structural parts, and executive chairs often carry leather upholstery.

Black and white photo of men bending wooden chair backs in a crowded brick workshop

Workers bend chair backs in a workshop, May 1940. Photo: US National Archives via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Comfort became a design goal in the 1970s, when ergonomics turned into an important consideration. Herman Miller's Ergon chair arrived in 1976, which The Henry Ford describes as the first truly ergonomic office chair. Its Aeron followed in 1994 and swapped conventional foam and fabric for a pellicle mesh. Wikipedia says the Aeron is cited as the best selling individual office chair in the United States, with more than 9 million sold. Upholstery, meanwhile, was still sewn by people at machines: a 1953 photograph from New Zealand shows an upholsterer at a Singer sewing machine.

Black and white photo of a young man in an apron sewing upholstery on a Singer machine

An upholsterer sews on a Singer machine in the Otahuhu workshops, New Zealand, 1953. Photo: J.F. Le Cren / Archives New Zealand via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

What a modern chair line looks like

Okamura's chair plant in Yokosuka, Japan, filmed for the Science Japan series in 2023, shows the mix. Metal parts that support the seat are pressed and welded by several robots. The cushion is molded urethane, with hardness set for each seat position, and the frame is injection molded plastic. Fabric is prepared separately. The page describing the film says the parts are assembled by hand in the final stage, which is where the human work remains. The chair is designed to reduce fatigue during long periods of sitting.

Grey mesh ergonomic office chair with arms and a five wheel base on a white plinth

A prototype ergonomic office chair on show at the V&A in London. Photo: 14GTR / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

Business news shows an industry in flux. HNI's $2.2 billion purchase of Steelcase closed in December 2025, and on 9 September 2026 Steelcase named Irene Tasi as president, effective 14 September. Steelcase has about 11,300 employees and a dealer network of roughly 790 locations. On 22 September MillerKnoll reported fiscal first quarter 2027 net sales of about $923 million, down 3.4 percent, with orders up 3.2 percent to about $914 million, and cut its full year sales outlook. International Contract orders rose 17.3 percent, while North America Contract weakened. Makers with falling sales have a reason to look at costs.

Orange ABB welding robot beside a positioner holding a large steel part in a workshop

An ABB robot welding a large steel part on a positioner. Photo: Ana 2016 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

ABB already works on seat frames. ABB supplied the robotic cells for Lander Automotive, a UK maker of welded tubular structures, to produce metal seat frames for cars, using a mix of new and refurbished robots. An office chair frame has similar work: bent tube or pressed steel joined by welding. A GoFa CRB 15000 with its Cobot Arc Welding Package can be taught a weld by guiding the torch by hand, so a small plant can weld batches of different frames. Our car seat manufacturing post covers the car side.

Worker guiding a welding torch held by a white GoFa robot arm over a perforated table

ABB's GoFa Cobot Arc Welding Package on a welding table. Photo: ABB

Plastic and packing are also robot work. In Austria an ABB robot handles toilet seats at MKW, a plastic part comparable to a chair shell or armrest. At the end of the line an ABB IRB 660 palletizer can stack boxed chairs for shipping. ABB has not announced an office chair project, and no public source confirms that it supplies a chair maker, so the fit described here is a possibility. A cell like this is usually built and tested first in RobotStudio.

Orange ABB robot arm with a suction gripper lifting a white molded seat

An ABB robot handling toilet seats at MKW in Austria. Photo: ABB

Where chair factories go next

Upholstery is the hard part. Sewing still depends on a person guiding soft fabric under the needle, and Okamura's chairs are assembled by hand at the end. A robot that picks a mesh cover and fits it to a frame has to cope with fabric that stretches and sags, which helps explain why that step stays manual. Okamura's cushions are molded to a hardness set for each seat position, so even the foam is a variant. Vision and touch sensing may help over time. More variants also mean smaller batches, so programming speed matters.

Large white ABB robot stacking cardboard boxes onto a pallet behind safety fencing

An ABB IRB 660 palletizing robot stacking boxed products at the end of a line. Photo: ABB

Cost and skills will set the pace. Chair makers sell in sizes, colors and options, and a robot cell has to earn its keep across many models. A cobot that a worker can teach by hand suits plants that run small batches. Safety matters when people work close by, which ABB's SafeMove covers. MillerKnoll pointed to improving pipelines and September order momentum in North America, so demand may return, and plants that automate now would be ready. For homes, the result could be better chairs at lower prices, but only if makers choose to automate.

Grey Aeron mesh office chair with adjustable arms on a white background

An Aeron chair in the Brooklyn Museum collection. Photo: Brooklyn Museum / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)

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