Reducer: the core power transmission mechanism

The reducer is the core power transmission mechanism in humanoid robots, which can be likened to human joints. The reducer plays a role in matching speed and transferring torque between the prime mover and the actuator, and mainly has precision planetary reducer, harmonic reducer, RV reducer and other categories. In the Tesla Optimus robot, which contains 14 harmonic reducers and 12 planetary reducers, the electric PFRL101C-2.0KN-3BSE002964R002  motor accounts for up to 17% of the total value.

3.2.1, harmonic reducer: small volume, high precision

The harmonic reducer has the advantages of small volume and high precision. The harmonic reducer is a kind of transmission device that makes the flexwheel produce controllable elastic deformation wave by wave generator, and realizes movement and power transmission through its interaction with the rigid wheel. Its structure is mainly composed of three basic components: rigid gear (rigid wheel) with internal gear ring, PFRL101C-2.0KN-3BSE002964R002  flexible gear (flexwheel) with external gear ring and wave generator. The harmonic drive technology breaks through the mode of mechanical transmission using rigid components, and uses a flexible component to achieve mechanical transmission, which has the advantages of high transmission accuracy and small volume, and is very suitable for the linear joints of humanoid robots.

The current Chinese market size of harmonic reducer is 2.5 billion yuan. According to the forecast of the first Leopard Research Institute, in 2022, the sales scale of harmonic reducer in the Chinese market will be 2.5 billion yuan, benefiting from the rapid development of robotics, precision machining equipment, aerospace, radar equipment, medical equipment and other fields, and it is expected that the market space will reach 4.1 billion yuan in 2025.

Hamanaco is the dominant player, and domestic companies are struggling to catch up. According to the data of the China Economic Industry Research Institute, in 2021, Hamenaco occupied 82% of the global harmonic reducer market. However, in the Chinese market, Hamenaco’s market share is only 35%, much lower than its global market share, Green harmonic market share is 25%, and Raffle Harmonic market share is 8%. The products of domestic enterprises in performance, life and other indicators have basically reached the same level with Hamanaco, but Hamanaco in the harmonic reducer industry for many years, with the head robot enterprises to establish a good and stable cooperative relationship, so the current domestic enterprises more in the domestic market to open the replacement of Hamanaco.

PFRL101C

3.2.2, planetary reducer: high efficiency, low cost

PFRL101C-2.0KN-3BSE002964R002  The planetary reducer is the most efficient gear transmission structure. The planetary gear transmission mechanism is mainly composed of a planetary gear wheel, a planetary frame and a solar wheel. When the precision planetary reducer is working, the prime mover such as the servo motor usually drives the sun wheel to rotate, and the meshing of the sun wheel and the planet wheel drives the planet wheel to rotate; At the same time, because the other side of the planet wheel engages with the inner ring gear ring on the inner wall of the reducer housing, the final planet wheel will roll on the inner ring gear ring in the same direction as the sun wheel rotation under the rotation drive, forming a “revolution” movement around the Sun wheel. There is a difference in the number of teeth between the sun wheel and the gear ring, so as to achieve the purpose of slowing down.

The current global market size of planetary reducer is about 9 billion yuan. According to QY Research data, in 2022, the global market planetary reducer sales scale of 1.2 billion US dollars, the Chinese market planetary reducer sales scale of 500 million US dollars, is expected to 2029 global planetary reducer sales scale of 2.231 billion US dollars, CAGR of 9% in 2022-2029; The Chinese market size reached $1.149 PFRL101C-2.0KN-3BSE002964R002  billion, with a CAGR of 13% in 2022-2029.

The competitive landscape is relatively fragmented, with overseas players taking the lead. On a global scale, the precision planetary reducer products of Germany, Japan and other countries are in a leading position in the industry in terms of materials, design level, quality control, accuracy, reliability and service life. The domestic brand camp is mainly represented by Kefeng Intelligent, Newshi Dart, and China Great Power De, and the main foreign precision planetary reducer manufacturers are Japan Xinbao, Newkat, Wittenstein and so on. According to the sales amount data collected by QY Research, the global CR5 will be 47% in 2022, and Japan’s New Treasure, Neukat and Wittenstein occupy the top three.