Nidec Drive Technology produces harmonic reducers for the first time in China, growing together with the Chinese robotics industry

Enthusiast Network reported (Text/Wu Zipeng) Electric transmission is one of the most commonly used transmission methods in the industry. It drives the various joints of the robot through the reducer, and has the advantages of low cost, high precision, and easy control. At the 2024 China International Expo (hereinafter referred to as: Industrial Expo), traditional arms, collaborative robots, humanoid robots and various bodies have become representatives of "new quality productivity", and can accurately complete operations such as object handling, object grasping, and restoring the Rubik's Cube. In order for the robot to complete the entire process from object recognition, grasping planning to precise placement, the reducer, a key component, is indispensable.

As a subsidiary of Nidec Corporation, Nidec Transmission Technology (Zhejiang) Co., Ltd. participated in this Industrial Expo and displayed a number of highly competitive reducers. At the same time, Nidec Transmission Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Nidec Corporation, announced that it will start mass production of harmonic reducers at its factory in Pinghu City, Zhejiang Province, China in October 2024. The harmonic reducers are mainly installed in the joints of robots, and this is the first time that they have been mass-produced in China.

Nidec booth



Some of Nidec's exhibits at the Industrial Expo

Chen Donghui, Chairman of Nidec Machinery (Shanghai) Transmission Technology Co., Ltd., said, "Nidec established a planetary reducer factory in China in 2002, laying a very good foundation. At present, with the domestic market so inward-looking, Nidec firmly holds the first place in the domestic planetary reducer. For the mass production of harmonic reducers in China this time, Nidec has transferred a lot of outstanding cadres and experienced employees from the planetary reducer factory, and the mass production team is of excellent quality."

Helping Chinese companies cope with internal competition

At the 2024 Industrial Expo, Nidec displayed the precision reducer KINEX, the built-in precision reducer Smart-FLEXWAVE, the harmonic reducer, the reducer series, and displayed the reference examples of the planetary reducer ABLE high-precision series. These products can help domestic robots and enterprises to better design products and have huge market space.

Taking the industrial robot market as an example, as shown in the figure below, statistics show that the sales volume of industrial robots in China has experienced significant growth, from 37,000 units in 2013 to 316,000 units in 2023; in 2022, China's robot production reached a peak of 443,000 sets. Although it declined in 2023, the production of 430,000 sets still made China the world's first; in terms of market size, the scale of China's industrial robot market reached 58.5 billion yuan in 2022, and it is expected to increase to 72.6 billion yuan in 2024.

China's industrial robot market data, source: Nidec

Driven by the continuous growth in sales, output and market size, domestic robots have ushered in a historic development opportunity. As shown in the figure below, the number of industrial robots sold by Chinese independent brand companies just exceeded 9,500 in 2013, but 10 years later, the sales volume of domestic brand industrial robots has reached 228,000. These data show the improvement of domestic brands in technology, quality and market recognition.

Domestic industrial robot brand shipment data, source: Nidec

However, with the increase in the number of brands entering the market, the domestic industrial robot market has experienced a certain degree of involution, which has put great pressure on the design and production of robots. Chen Donghui pointed out that Nidec is making every effort to upgrade the cost-effectiveness of its products, including purchasing reducer parts in China and responding to the Chinese market in a Chinese production manner. "Reducing the cost of reducers can better meet the manufacturing needs of Chinese industrial robots."

At the same time, Chen Donghui also mentioned: "Nidec founder and global group representative Nagamori Shigenobu has been teaching us that there is no limit to cost reduction. He urged us to go to the front line of the factory and discuss with the employees in the factory, and they will help you find a solution. Of course, there is another condition. We must see that the size of the Chinese market is getting bigger and bigger, so the cost of manufacturing will also get lower and lower."

In Chen Donghui's narration, bearings are a very representative example. Today, China's bearing factories are already very competitive. One important reason is that China has a huge demand for bearings, which can drive China's bearing factories to continuously improve quality and optimize costs. This is very helpful for Nidec to optimize the cost of products such as harmonic reducers.

In terms of harmonic reducers, Nidec Transmission Technology's goal is to build a production system with a monthly output of 10,000 units by the end of 2024 and 20,000 units per month in the summer of 25 to meet China's growing market demand for robots.

Growing together with China's robotics industry

According to Chen Donghui, Nidec not only has a rich variety of reducer product types, but also its products can cover various robot needs from high to low. He mentioned in his introduction that unlike most international brand companies, the group representative Nagamori Shigenobu does not allow Nidec to only make high-end products, but to have a comprehensive layout in high, medium and low-end products. Among them, low-end products do not mean that the product has poor precision, but to reduce costs while ensuring product quality to meet the market's continuous pursuit of high cost performance.

Whether it is a high-end product or a low-end product, innovation is the driving force behind product upgrades. Nidec's precision reducer Smart-FLEXWAVE with built-in multi-sensors is a very innovative example. Smart-FLEXWAVE is a precision control reducer with built-in sensors, including torque, temperature, and angle. The thin-film sensor developed by Nidec can be built into the product to promote the miniaturization and lightweight of collaborative robots and realize the ()ization of various types of mechanical equipment.

In order to improve the reliability of Smart-FLEXWAVE, the product will undergo rigorous testing. "Nidec's head office has a reliability laboratory. Before the product is launched, Smart-FLEXWAVE will be repeatedly tested 10 million times before it is launched to the market to ensure the reliability of the product. At the same time, the built-in ultra-thin sensor is also jointly developed with a very reliable Japanese partner, which is a strong combination. At present, Smart-FLEXWAVE has been supplied to some Japanese customers." Chen Donghui said.

The comprehensive product layout and continuous product innovation have made Nidec's reducer widely recognized in the domestic robot market. At the 2024 Industrial Expo, Nidec held a dialogue meeting on site. Mitsuji Shimano, President of Nidec Transmission Technology, Chen Donghui, Chairman of Nidec Machinery (Shanghai) Transmission Technology, and Wang Shen, Vice President of Aobo (Beijing) Intelligent Technology, and Chen Dong, General Manager of Shanghai Turing Intelligent Robotics, participated in the dialogue, involving the development of Chinese robots, the outlook for humanoid robots, and customers' expectations for Nidec.

Mitsuji Shimano, President of Nidec Transmission Technology (first from left), Wang Shen, Vice President of AUO (Beijing) Intelligent Technology (second from left), Chen Dong, General Manager of Shanghai Turing Robotics (second from right), and Chen Donghui, Chairman of Nidec Transmission Technology (Shanghai) (first from right)

Wang Shen mainly analyzed the current situation and subsequent development of domestic collaborative robots. He pointed out that from the perspective of shipments, the growth rate of domestic collaborative robots shipments in the first half of 2024 has declined, but the market still has very good prospects for future development. Collaborative robots will eventually usher in an explosion in the terminal market, especially in the automotive field and human-machine collaboration field, where obvious trends have been seen.

Chen Dong talked about his views from the perspective of the entire domestic robot market. He believes that China's robot market is still in its infancy. Data shows that in the past 10 years, there have been 249 robots for every 10,000 workers in China. Therefore, the next 10 years will be the golden decade for the development of China's robot industry. Demand not only comes from 3C, automobiles, lithium batteries and photovoltaics, which everyone is concerned about, but also from textiles and traditional automation. There will be a large demand for robots, and the development of the industry has just begun.

Shimano Mitsuji affirmed the statements of the two customer representatives, and he also believed that the future potential of the Chinese robot market is huge. At the same time, he emphasized that although Nidec is an international brand company, it is very firmly implementing the strategy of taking root in China, establishing its own bases in Shanghai and Pinghu, providing better reducer products for the Chinese robot industry, and growing together with the Chinese robot industry.

Conclusion

The strategic height of a company's founder often determines the company's development height. Nagamori Shigenobu's understanding of product planning and the Chinese market is different from that of most founders of international brand companies. This also allows Nidec to be deeply bound to Chinese companies and Chinese industries. Taking the reducer mentioned in this article as an example, Nidec not only provides Chinese customers with a comprehensive range of reducer products. At the same time, Nidec is also "responding to the Chinese market with Chinese production methods", allowing the reducer business and the Chinese robot industry to grow together.