As the basic part of robot, the performance of robot joint directly influences the performance of robot. While speed reducer is an essential part of robot joint. Since industrial robot is high demanding as to positioning accuracy and repositioning accuracy, RV speed reducer or harmonic speed reducer are the major precision speed reducer applied in robot joint.

The research results of the Prospects Industry Research Institute show that a universal robot generally requires 4-6 speed reducers. Here in the prediction, we take 4.5 speed reducers for a universal robot, then from 2014 to 2018, the new demands of industrial robots to speed reducers will achieve 189 thousand, 236 thousand, 296 thousand, 369 thousand and 462 thousand respectively.

What’s more, for the existing industrial robots, the speed reducers equipped need to be regularly replaced after rated operating lives; and the operating life of industrial robot is 8-10 years in general, during which abrasion is unavoidable for the speed reducer as transmission and bearing component, therefore, the maintenance and repair of current industrial robots also needs large number of speed reducers.

Although several powerful industrial robot researching and manufacturing enterprises have emerged in China during last decade, from the industrialization perspective, China industrial robot has not industrialized yet, the key of which will be developing core components and parts consisting of precision speed reducer, driver and controller, and servo motor, among which speed reducer is the most determinant factor restricting the development of domestic industrial robot technology.

At present, precision speed reducers for domestic industrial robots are mainly monopolized by foreign manufactures including Teijin, Sumitomo, SEJINIGB, SPINEA, Harmonica, HarmonicaDriveAG etc. There is not any matured RV speed reducer in China yet, while some domestic privately operated speed reducer enterprises have tackled the series problems of harmonic speed reducers and successfully applied domestic harmonic speed reducers in industrial robots, such as CTKM, Suzhou Lyudi and Beijing Harmonic Drive Technology Institute.

In spite of the all the troubles came across in the present domestic industrial robot speed reducer R&D and the gap between domestic and Japanese products performance, the overall quality of products are improving, and some products even begin to substitute foreign products. In the face of the huge domestic market demand, the localization of precision speed reducer is only a matter of time with the signs of import substitution.