Nidec Drive Technology Develops Smart-FLEXWAVE, the World’s First Precision Reducer with Multiple Built-in Sensors

　　Nidec Drive Technology Corporation (“Nidec Drive Technology” or the “Company”), a member of Nidec Corporation’s group companies, announced today that it has developed Smart-FLEXWAVE, the world-first product that combines FLEXWAVE, an existing precision control reducer for robots and machine tools, with built-in torque, temperature, and angle sensors.

　　FLEXWAVE, the currently available precision reducer with a wave gear mechanism, is used chiefly in industrial robots’ joints for its ability to achieve a high reduction ratio with a single axis, among other features such as light weight, compact size, high rotation accuracy, and super-low backlash. The Smart₋FLEXWAVE, the newly developed reducer that combines torque, temperature, and angle sensors in its mechanism, can detect output torque, temperature inside a reducer, and input axis angle while maintaining an existing reducer’s space.

　　This feature enables Smart₋FLEXWAVE to contribute to making smaller and lighter collaborative robots, detect a robot crashing into an obstacle, and monitor screw tightening torque, overheat, stopping place, etc., all remotely via a network, boosting productivity.

　　The Company stays committed to providing a variety of fields with its high-efficiency industrial machines based on its reducer- and continuously variable transmission-based knowhow to contribute to productivity enhancement and automation.