Radiator Manufacturing: From Cast Iron to ABB Robots

Radiator manufacturing is the quiet industry behind the warm wall in most European homes. A panel radiator looks like a flat white box, but it is pressed steel plate, welded seams, a coat of paint and a pressure test, repeated thousands of times a day. This post follows the radiator from the first heating radiator of 1855 and the heavy cast iron models that followed, to the steel panel plants of today. It also covers where ABB welding and paint robots fit, and which parts of that story are real and which are possible. If you work in heating, or just wonder how the radiator in your room was made, this gives you the outline.

A white steel panel radiator with a thermostatic valve on a wall. Photo: Sahaib / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

From the first radiator to cast iron sections

The word radiator was first used for a heating appliance in 1834, when Denison Olmsted of New Haven, Connecticut, patented a stove with a heat exchanger. The heating radiator itself was invented in 1855 by Franz San Galli, a Prussia born Russian businessman working in St. Petersburg. Early designs used fabricated metal. An 1861 catalogue plate from Morris, Tasker and Co. shows how far the form had moved by then: the cast iron pedestal radiator No 164 had twisted columns and ornate scrollwork, made in a foundry.

Cast Iron Pedestal Radiator No 164 from an 1861 catalogue by Morris, Tasker and Co. Photo: Morris, Tasker and Co. via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Cast iron won the market. In the late 1800s the American Radiator Company promoted cast iron radiators over earlier fabricated steel designs, because they cost less and opened up a bigger market. Making them was a foundry trade built on molten iron and heavy lifting, and the American Radiator Company's factory complex shows the scale the business reached. The 1861 catalogue plate above is from Pascal Iron Works, and it shows that cast iron radiators were also sold as decorative furniture, with columns and scrollwork.

The American Radiator Company factory complex, photographed in 2015. Photo: Pubdog / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Many of those iron radiators are still in service, and some are refurbished rather than replaced. The trade changed when steel returned in the form of the panel radiator. Panel radiators are welded from flat or corrugated steel panels, often with fins, and are usually hung on a wall. A sheet steel product suits a press and welding line better than a foundry. I could not find a source that dates the first steel panel radiator, so I leave that year out.

A cast iron sectional radiator during refurbishment. Photo: makantr / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

What a panel radiator plant looks like now

A steel panel radiator starts as flat sheet. The panels are formed, fins are added for extra heat output, and the parts are welded into a sealed unit that is then tested for leaks and painted. Heat output depends on the panels and fins, so the geometry has to repeat from one radiator to the next. That repeatability is why the work suits automation, and the inside of a modern panel radiator shows the folded fins a line has to produce.

Inside a panel radiator, showing the folded fins that carry heat from the water. Photo: HTL-Moedchen23 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The market is moving too. Stelrad, a major UK maker, published an annual update on 15 October that stresses premiumisation, meaning a larger share of better designed and finished radiators. Its first half 2026 results put revenue down 9.1 percent at £124.0 million, and one write up says premium panels made up 6.2 percent of its steel panel radiator sales. Stelrad's own trading update in May called market demand subdued and left its full year outlook unchanged. Drayton launched a second generation Wiser radiator thermostat on 21 September, a sign that the radiator is becoming a connected product as well as a steel box.

An ABB arc welding robot with a positioner that turns heavy parts. Photo: Ana 2016 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

On the welding side, ABB arc welding robots are normally paired with a positioner that turns the work so the torch reaches every seam, which suits long, flat parts that must be sealed. On the finishing side, ABB's IRB 5500 FlexPainter is a paint robot built for explosive paint booth air and marketed for exterior panel painting. ABB's January 2009 automotive magazine describes robots at Modine in Brescia, Italy, making vehicle radiators more flexibly, a car cooling case and not a wall panel. I did not find a named heating radiator plant using ABB robots, so treat these as fits. Our post on powder coating robots covers the finishing step.

An ABB IRB 5500 paint robot, a design built to work in explosive paint booth air. Photo: ABB

Where radiator plants go next

Heat pumps change what a radiator has to do. They run at lower water temperatures, which usually means larger or finned radiators to give out the same heat from cooler water. More surface and more fins would mean more welding and handling in the plant. Our post on heat pump manufacturing covers the other side of that trade. A smart thermostat head on each radiator, like the Drayton unit, adds a small electronics assembly and test step too.

A thermostatic radiator valve head beside a panel radiator. Photo: 247 Home Rescue / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

Radiators are bulky and heavy. A line has to move coils of steel, pressed panels and finished units that can be taller than a person, and the last step is stacking them for transport. The ABB IRB 5710 is a large robot for heavy handling, which fits that kind of load, though no source says it is used in a radiator plant. Stacking at the end of a line is a standard palletizing job, and ABB's IRB 460 and IRB 660 palletizers are built for it. Cells like this are normally planned first in RobotStudio, where reach and cycle time can be checked before any steel is moved.

Engineers with an ABB IRB 5710, a large robot for heavy handling. Photo: ABB

The open problems are the usual ones. A robot cell costs money, so the product mix has to be stable enough to repay it, and radiators come in many sizes and colors. Premium ranges add finishes and designs, which pushes toward flexible cells. Welding and painting involve heat, fumes and moving arms, so safety guarding matters. Short runs of special designs may stay with human welders while robots take the repeat seams, and plants need people who can program and maintain the cells.

The site of the former Magyar Radiatorgyar radiator factory in Hungary, 2024. Photo: 12akd / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

Innovation

AI solutions for effortless ABB robot control.

Automation

Robotics

ceojohntran@chatwithrobot.net

+84905311611

© 2025. All rights reserved.

qtran1215@gmail.com