Schaeffler opens a factory in Taicang, China where humanoids build the parts for humanoids
From the Robots digest for 2026-10-20
What happened: Heise, October 20, 2026 (~8:48 AM ET): Schaeffler has opened a factory where humanoid robots manufacture actuators — joint modules — for humanoid robots, with the robots also being trained on site. RobotsBeat's writeup (~1:04 PM ET) supplies the address and scale: Schaeffler's Taicang plant, six humanoid robots working across five stations, with digital twins linking production and training.
What's genuinely new: The robots-build-robots loop under a named Western supplier — but located in China, not in Germany. The record's earlier version of the loop was also China-side: UBTECH's Liuzhou humanoid-production factory, opened September 16, 2026. A German engineering group siting the loop at its Chinese plant fits the China industrial-shift storyline's onshore-manufacturing story, and it corrects the day's earlier "German factory" reading. Output volumes and named humanoid customers are absent from both captures.
Watch: which humanoid maker consumes Schaeffler's joint modules; output volumes; verification of the on-site training and digital-twin claims.
Links: heise — Schaeffler: Humanoid robots build joint modules for humanoid robots · RobotsBeat — Schaeffler's Taicang factory uses six humanoids across five stations to assemble robot joint modules