Partner Highlight Series · Episode 2 · ABB Robotics
How ABB GoFa™ collaborative robots and RoboTape are bringing precise, repeatable adhesive automation to electronics manufacturing.
Modern electronics manufacturing depends on adhesive systems far more than most people realize. Behind display assemblies, touch panels, battery insulation layers, EMI shielding, camera modules, and thermal management materials, engineered adhesive products perform critical structural and functional roles inside the final product. Most consumers never see them, but these materials have become foundational to how modern electronics are designed, assembled, and qualified.
At the same time, manufacturers face mounting pressure to increase throughput, maintain tighter quality tolerances, and address persistent skilled labor shortages across production environments. As products become more compact and application requirements more demanding, inconsistencies that were once manageable at lower volumes become statistically significant at scale.
This article examines the technical case for collaborative robotic adhesive automation in electronics manufacturing, specifically the combination of ABB GoFa™ collaborative robotics and the RoboTape adhesive automation system, and why platform quality is not a secondary consideration, but a primary one.
Manufacturing Automation Is No Longer Optional
According to Deloitte’s 2025 Smart Manufacturing and Operations Survey, conducted with 600 senior executives from large U.S.-based manufacturers, 46% ranked process automation as a top-two investment priority for the next 24 months, and 78% are allocating more than 20% of their improvement budgets to smart manufacturing initiatives. The same study found that 48% of manufacturers report moderate to significant challenges filling production and operations management roles.
These pressures are especially acute in adhesive application processes. In many production environments, tape and adhesive placement still relies heavily on manual workflows, introducing variability in path consistency, application pressure, material usage, and cycle-to-cycle repeatability. In electronics manufacturing specifically, that variability is directly tied to cosmetic quality, sealing performance, thermal management consistency, and vibration resistance.
As production volumes grow and product tolerances tighten, manufacturers are increasingly looking for automation systems capable of delivering consistent adhesive application at scale, without sacrificing precision or flexibility.
The Material Science Advanced Faster Than the Process
Modern high-performance tapes are engineered to withstand heat, vibration, thermal cycling, and environmental exposure while maintaining consistent bond performance across the product’s full service life. The materials themselves have made significant advances. The application process has not always kept pace.
In many manufacturing environments, adhesive application still depends on manual placement. A slight deviation in path, an inconsistency in wet-out pressure, or a variation in application speed can influence thermal transfer performance, sealing integrity, vibration damping, bond performance, cosmetic finish quality, and long-term durability. In high-volume electronics production, these are not edge cases. They compound across thousands of production cycles.
“Consistency is not optional in electronics manufacturing. It is the specification.”
RoboTape has now completed more than 170 installations worldwide as of 2026, across automotive, electronics, EV batteries, appliances, HVAC, and consumer goods, as reported by TechSoda (2026). The global adhesive tape market is projected to grow from $80.20 billion in 2024 to $127.50 billion by 2032 (Fortune Business Insights). Automation is how manufacturers keep pace with that demand without sacrificing application quality.
Why Adhesive Automation Places Unique Demands on the Robot
Tape automation is fundamentally different from most traditional robotic applications. Unlike pick-and-place operations, adhesive placement depends on continuous path consistency throughout the entire application cycle. The robot is not simply moving a tool between defined endpoints. It is carrying a live manufacturing process where motion quality directly determines material performance.
Tool centre point (TCP) speed consistency matters because variations directly affect tape stretch and placement accuracy. RoboTape reads the robot’s TCP speed signal in real time to dynamically adjust the tape feed rate, meaning any speed variation in the robot arm propagates directly into the adhesive layer. Path smoothness matters because abrupt motion transitions can introduce wrinkles, bubbles, or contact gaps in the bond line. Orientation stability matters because even small angular inconsistencies affect bonding quality across sensitive surfaces such as display assemblies or EMI shielding layers.
In precision electronics applications, every one of these variables becomes more critical, because the products are smaller, the tolerances tighter, and the cost of rework or scrap higher. This is why the robotic platform is not a peripheral component in a tape automation system. It is part of the quality architecture.
ABB Robotics: A Global Foundation for Precision Automation
ABB’s engineering roots trace back more than 140 years through the histories of Sweden’s ASEA (founded 1883) and Switzerland’s Brown, Boveri & Cie (founded 1891), two industrial engineering companies that merged in 1988 to form ABB. Since then, ABB has grown into one of the world’s most recognized automation brands, with more than 500,000 robot solutions shipped worldwide across automotive, electronics, logistics, healthcare, and advanced manufacturing industries, operating in more than 100 countries.
For manufacturers making long-term automation investments, that installed base matters. A robotic adhesive automation cell is not a machine purchase with a short horizon. It becomes part of the manufacturing infrastructure for years, often across multiple product generations and evolving production requirements. ABB’s global service network, long-term platform support, and software ecosystem are all factors that shape the true cost and longevity of that investment.
GoFa™: Built for Flexible, Precision Manufacturing
The ABB GoFa™ cobot family (CRB 15000) was designed for flexible manufacturing environments where precision, repeatability, collaborative operation, and deployment accessibility all matter simultaneously. With reach up to 1.62 m depending on the model, TCP speeds up to 2.2 m/s, and integrated torque sensors in all six joints, GoFa provides power and force limiting designed to stop the robot on contact. Depending on the application and its risk assessment, GoFa can work directly alongside people without bulky barriers or fencing.
In September 2024, ABB launched Ultra Accuracy for the GoFa™ family, a software-enhanced motion feature delivering over 10 times greater path accuracy than other cobots on the market, with path accuracy of 0.03 mm. When combined with ABB’s RobotStudio® offline simulation platform, ABB reports up to a 99% match between simulation and reality in offline programming, which removes most manual touch-ups after installation and shortens commissioning time.
“By combining ultra-accurate path performance with GoFa’s inherent simplicity, safety, and flexibility, ABB’s new Ultra Accuracy feature opens a wide range of possibilities for the use of cobots in businesses including electronics, automotive, aerospace, and metal fabrication.”
Andrea Cassoni, Global Head of Collaborative Robots, ABB Robotics
Unlike conventional 2D gantry systems, GoFa provides full 6D motion across its entire workspace, calibrated at the factory prior to delivery. This means broader application flexibility without the need for expensive customization, and a faster path from installation to production-ready operation.
GoFa™ Technical Specifications
| Reach | 950 mm (GoFa 5) · up to 1,620 mm (GoFa 10) |
|---|---|
| Payload | 5, 10 and 12 kg models · up to 14 kg max payload |
| Path Accuracy | 0.03 mm (Ultra Accuracy) · 0.1 mm absolute accuracy |
| Safety Sensors | Integrated torque sensors in all 6 joints · Safety certified Category 3, PL d |
| Simulation Match | Up to 99% simulation-to-reality match with RobotStudio® offline programming |
| Motion | Full 6D motion across entire workspace; factory-calibrated before delivery |
Full product specifications: ABB GoFa™ collaborative robots
How RoboTape and ABB GoFa™ Work Together
RoboTape was developed specifically for technical adhesive applications involving tapes with peel liners, enabling automated liner separation and synchronized adhesive placement throughout the application cycle. The system’s remote-feed architecture, covered by RoboTape’s core patent, stores tape on an external spool five to ten times larger than competing systems, as reported by TechSoda, reducing spool changes, improving robot maneuverability, and extending runtime between maintenance interventions.
The integration between GoFa™ and RoboTape operates through a real-time TCP speed signal connection. RoboTape reads the robot’s tool center point speed continuously and adjusts the tape feed rate dynamically, ensuring that the adhesive material is dispensed at precisely the rate matching the robot’s path velocity. This is designed to prevent tape stretch and placement error, two common quality failure modes in manual tape application.
Communication between the systems is handled via standard industrial protocols (EtherNet/IP, PROFINET, or EtherCAT), selectable at time of purchase, with RoboTape operating as a slave device controlled by the robot or a central PLC. All cabling, motor power, encoder lines, and pneumatic supply are routed externally via a protected conduit, requiring no through-wrist robot configuration and simplifying integration into existing automation architectures.
“The robot is not simply holding the applicator. It is carrying the process.”
RoboTape is compatible with foam gasket, VHB (acrylic foam tapes), EMI shielding, acoustic, thermal management, dielectric, dual-lock, felt, flock, and BSR tapes. For a full overview of the GoFa™ and RoboTape integration, see RoboTape’s published technical overview.
Electronics Manufacturing Applications
RoboTape systems integrated with ABB platforms are active across multiple manufacturing environments. The GoFa™’s collaborative capability is particularly well-suited for production cells where operators access the cell for part loading, tape reel changes, or inspection. Depending on the application and its risk assessment, collaborative cells can reduce or eliminate traditional perimeter guarding, which improves access and reduces cell footprint.
Relevant application areas include display and touch panel assembly, where precision path control is required for thin adhesive layers on cosmetic-grade surfaces; EMI shielding tape, where consistent edge-to-edge coverage is critical for shielding effectiveness; thermal management materials, where uniform contact pressure directly affects thermal conductivity performance; and EV battery module sealing and bonding, where repeatable tape placement must be maintained across high-volume production. Camera and sensor module mounting in ADAS and consumer electronics applications demands sub-millimeter adhesive placement accuracy for optical alignment and structural integrity.
The GoFa™’s full 6D motion across its entire workspace enables RoboTape to address complex part geometries, curved surfaces, and multi-plane application paths, where tape placement must follow three-dimensional surfaces rather than a flat plane.
The Robot Is Part of the Quality System
In tape automation, the robotic platform is not a peripheral. Motion quality, path accuracy, speed consistency, and vibration damping are all quality variables, because they directly determine where the adhesive lands, at what pressure, and how consistently that result repeats across thousands of production cycles.
ABB GoFa™ provides the motion control foundation that tape automation demands: path accuracy measured in hundredths of a millimeter, force sensing integrated at every joint, simulation fidelity that minimizes post-installation touch-ups, and collaborative operation that keeps production cells accessible without compromising safety. RoboTape provides the tape handling, liner management, feed synchronization, and adhesive application engineering that turns that robotic motion into a repeatable manufacturing process.
Together, they represent a technically sound answer to one of the persistent challenges in advanced electronics manufacturing: delivering consistent, high-quality adhesive placement at production scale, reliably, across years of operation.
A Growing Partnership Built on Technical Alignment
As this collaboration between ABB Robotics and Innovative Automation continues to expand, the relationship has recently reached another important milestone.
Innovative Automation has officially been recognized as an ABB Value Provider, an ABB accreditation for partners with demonstrated technical expertise in ABB Robotics products and solutions.
This designation reinforces a partnership built around delivering high-performance robotic automation solutions for advanced manufacturing environments, combining ABB’s robotics platforms with Innovative Automation’s application engineering expertise.