Umbrella Manufacturing: From Fox Steel Ribs to ABB Robots

Umbrella manufacturing is a good test of what robots can and cannot do. A folding umbrella has a steel or fibreglass frame, a runner that slides on a shaft, a sewn canopy, a handle and a cap, and none of it is rigid. This post traces the umbrella from early oiled paper to Samuel Fox's steel ribs of 1852, then to the Chinese factories that now supply most of the world. It also covers this month's robot news, where ABB arms such as the IRB 1700 could fit on a line, and what still needs a human hand.

Two folded umbrellas with a raindrop print, the compact design that factories now build in volume. Photo: Kritzolina / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

How steel ribs turned a luxury into a factory product

Umbrellas are old. Egyptian art from about 2450 BC shows fan like parasols, and the Book of Han describes a collapsible umbrella made for Wang Mang's carriage in AD 21. In London, Jonas Hanway is credited as the first man to carry one habitually, around 1750. Until the 1850s the frames used whalebone or solid steel. Whalebone was unreliable and solid steel was heavy, so the umbrella stayed a costly item that was hard to fold when wet. Oiled paper versions like the one shown here stayed in use in parts of Asia.

A traditional oil paper umbrella with bamboo ribs in Luang Prabang, Laos, 2023. Photo: Basile Morin / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Samuel Fox, a wire drawer who moved to Stocksbridge in 1842, grooved the rib so that its hollow shape gave it springiness and lightness. Grace's Guide gives 1852 for his Paragon frame, though some sources say 1851. Folding followed. A 1910 advertisement from Beehler of Baltimore promised an umbrella that "Folds and Fits Suit-case". Hans Haupt's pocket umbrellas appeared in 1928, and in 1969 Bradford Phillips of Totes patented a working folding umbrella. A folding frame has many joints, and someone has to assemble each one.

A 1910 advertisement from Beehler of Baltimore for an umbrella that folds to fit a suitcase. Photo: Beehler Umbrella Factory via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Machines entered early. A US patent granted on September 23, 1873 to Arthur Wilson of Birmingham describes a screw press that pushes a rib onto a brass strip, called a lap, while a punch folds the strip's ends into grooves on the rib, fastening it in one operation. That lap links the stretcher to the rib. Umbrella making grew into a trade of its own. A factory photographed in Alsolendva, Hungary, around 1909 shows a crowd gathered outside a long building whose sign reads Hungaria, for umbrella factory.

The Hungaria umbrella factory in Alsolendva, Hungary, around 1909. Photo: unknown author via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Where umbrella lines stand in October 2026

Today most umbrellas come from China. Wikipedia reports that as of 2008 most umbrellas worldwide were made there, mainly in Guangdong, Fujian and Zhejiang, and that the city of Shangyu alone had more than a thousand umbrella factories. Handwork has not vanished, since paper umbrellas are still made and dried by hand in some workshops. On September 29 Euronews reported the IFR figure of about 5.08 million industrial robots working worldwide, with a record 603,000 installed last year. The same report counted only about 7,000 humanoid robots sold for industrial and professional use. Umbrella lines are not named in those numbers.

Hand made paper umbrella canopies laid out over the ground in a workshop. Photo: Sopyaylynn / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Assembly is where the work is. A patent from the early 2000s says conventional automatic umbrellas were labour intensive because metal wire bound each rib to the runner, and a patent on larger shade umbrellas calls hub and rib assembly tedious and sometimes in need of rework when rib ends sit misaligned. I found no source that names ABB on an umbrella line, so what follows is a possibility. An ABB PoWa cobot with a vacuum gripper could pick flat cut canopy panels from a stack, although a porous fabric makes suction harder than it looks.

An ABB PoWa cobot fitted with a vacuum gripper. Photo: ABB

The IRB 1700 family that ABB showed at CIIF in Shanghai in October fits the frame side. It comes in five variants, with payloads from 6 to 12 kg, 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, according to ABB. Its listed uses include arc welding, deburring and sanding. The IRB 1700ID carries its cables inside the arm, which helps when a weld torch works around the ribs and hub of a large shade umbrella frame.

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

What the next umbrella line will need

Finishing is the other job. Steel frames for large patio umbrellas need their weld seams smoothed before coating, and an IRB 1700 on a sanding station could hold the part at a steady angle and pressure. ABB also introduced an AI vision tool on October 16 that it says cuts commissioning time by up to 90 percent, which suits a plant that runs many frame sizes. Programs for any cell can be proven first in RobotStudio before steel or fabric is cut.

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

The hardest part is the umbrella itself. Ribs, stretchers and the runner must be threaded together in the right order and the canopy fixed to the tips, and every piece moves when you pick it up. A flexible product like this resists a rigid fixture, which is one reason fabric handling is hard to automate. Our post on garment sewing automation covers the same problem for clothes. Cost matters too, because a cheap umbrella leaves little room for an expensive cell, and keeping a canopy flat while it is attached to the rib tips is a delicate step.

The inside of an open folding umbrella, showing the ribs, stretchers and central runner. Photo: Kakkara / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

There is a home side to the story. A hand tinted photograph from 1930 shows a street umbrella repairer mending a frame by hand. In September, reports also described a prototype flying umbrella that follows its user using a depth camera and a Raspberry Pi, with wind and battery as limits. These are curiosities, not products. The open problems for factories are cost, safe cells next to people and the technicians who can keep them running.

A street umbrella repairer at work in 1930. Photo: Powerhouse Museum via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Innovation

AI solutions for effortless ABB robot control.

Automation

Robotics

ceojohntran@chatwithrobot.net

+84905311611

© 2025. All rights reserved.

qtran1215@gmail.com