ABB Robots in Press Shops: Stamping Steel Panels

From Daimler-Benz's 1956 press hall to Stellantis' new Warren blanking press, and how ABB robots, including the new IRB 6760, move panels between presses.

INDUSTRIAL ROBOTICS

Chat With Robot

9/25/20261 min read

In May 1956, the photographer Rolf Unterberg walked through the body press hall at Daimler-Benz in Sindelfingen, a building about 200 metres long. Roofs, doors and fenders all started there as flat steel sheets, and much of the lifting and loading between presses was done by the people on the floor.

Black and white photo of a long factory hall lined with large presses and stacks of sheet metal
Black and white photo of a long factory hall lined with large presses and stacks of sheet metal

The 200-metre body press hall at Daimler-Benz in Sindelfingen, May 1956. Photo: Rolf Unterberg / Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F003554-0003 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0 DE)

Over the following decades presses grew into long tandem lines, like the Schuler presses that stamp Mercedes-Benz panels in Bremen today. Mechanical feeders took over part of the loading. Volvo automated its first line with feeders in Sweden in 1973, and the first press line served by robots followed in 1993.

Large grey Schuler stamping press in a factory hall
Large grey Schuler stamping press in a factory hall

A Schuler press in the Mercedes-Benz press shop in Bremen, 2023. Photo: Uhu2600 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Stamping still sets the pace for a car plant. In September, MoparInsiders reported on a new blanking press at Stellantis' Warren Stamping Plant in Michigan. It brings the cutting of flat blanks in house and can supply 4.5 to 6 million parts a year for the Ram 1500 and three Jeep models.

Overhead view of a press line enclosure with stacked dies and forklifts around it
Overhead view of a press line enclosure with stacked dies and forklifts around it

A press line and die storage in hall 5 of the Mercedes-Benz press shop in Bremen. Photo: Uhu2600 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

ABB took over Volvo's press automation business in 1998. It has since automated more than 900 press lines around the world, using over 3,000 robots. The robots stand between the presses, lift each panel out of one die with suction tooling and set it into the next die without turning it.

Orange ABB robots with suction tooling reaching into a press line
Orange ABB robots with suction tooling reaching into a press line

ABB robots moving panels between presses on a stamping line. Photo: ABB (StampWorld brochure)

The newest of them, the IRB 6760, came out in 2025 and is meant for mid-sized lines. Fitted with ABB's carbon-fibre tooling boom it can run at 15 strokes a minute, roughly 900 parts an hour. It uses the OmniCore controller, which ABB says cuts energy use by 20%.

White ABB robot on a rail beside a dark car body shell on a yellow cart
White ABB robot on a rail beside a dark car body shell on a yellow cart

An ABB robot working on a car body shell, the end product of the press shop's panels. Photo: ABB

Presses like these also stamp washing machine casings and oven panels, and I suspect that is where press robots go next: appliance and parts makers too small for a car-scale line. Large ABB arms such as the IRB 6700 already move big flat panels in other kinds of factories, so the hardware is there.

White ABB robot lifting a large flat panel with a vacuum gripper in a factory
White ABB robot lifting a large flat panel with a vacuum gripper in a factory

An ABB IRB 6700 handling a large flat panel at dhp technology in Chur, Switzerland. Photo: ABB

Innovation

AI solutions for effortless ABB robot control.

Automation

Robotics

ceojohntran@chatwithrobot.net

+84905311611

© 2025. All rights reserved.

qtran1215@gmail.com

Instagram