How electric kettles are made
Most of an electric kettle's electrics arrive at the factory already built, in one bundled set per kettle.
- stations
- 10
- things upstream
- 95
- raw sources
- 27
- steps from the ground
- 11
The short version
Two steel stampings nest like bowls to form the base of a plastic-bodied electric kettle, while polypropylene pellets are injection molded into the upper housing and handle. Electrical parts arrive from subcontractors as one bundled set per kettle, including a fully enclosed 2 to 3 kilowatt element. Workers fit them, seal base to body, and switch each kettle on before boxing.
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Punch the base shell
Sheet steel, checked for thickness on arrival, goes under a punch press. A hydraulic punch drops and draws out a hollow shell that becomes the base. All-metal models use high-grade steel for the whole housing.
Goes in -
Press the element seat
A second sheet is pressed in a die that forms a seat for the element. This stamping sits inside the first, like one bowl in another.
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Coat the stampings
Hangers carry both pieces along a conveyor. The base takes a small charge that attracts a fine paint mist in a booth, matched to the plastic color. The water side of the other piece gets a treatment that makes mineral deposits easier to remove.
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Mold the upper housing
Polypropylene pellets drop by gravity from a hopper and melt into a liquid. High pressure forces it into a two-part steel die whose halves shape the outside, the inside and a solid handle. The hot housing is ejected and left to cool.
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Weld the two stampings
The painted and treated stampings are welded together into one base, which then moves onto a conveyor belt.
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Fit the electrical set
A worker unwraps the set and seats the connector between element and cord in its opening in the base. On automatic kettles a bimetallic strip, warmed by steam through a pipe, trips the current at the boil. Rubber feet go on here too.
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Seal base to body
The metal base, electrics in place, is sealed to the plastic housing to complete the body.
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Press on spout cover
A flip-up metal cover is pressed by hand onto the wide plastic spout, which also serves as the filling hole. Other models get a metal lid with a small molded handle.
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Plug in each one
Materials and parts have been inspected at every step since receiving. As the last check, each kettle is plugged in and operated.
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Bag and box
Each kettle goes in a plastic bag with its instructions, then a box, and the boxes fill shipping cartons.
Goes in
Worth repeating
- The heating element in a modern kettle draws up to 13 amps.
- By 1890, General Electric was already selling electric kettles in London.
- Russell Hobbs introduced the first fully automatic kettle, the stainless steel K1.
Back to the ground
Follow every input upstream and electric kettle starts as these 27 raw sources.
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Sources
Cite this page: "How electric kettles are made." Assembly Line, 2026-11-03. https://assemblyline.org/make/electric-kettle