Motion technology company Schaeffler is expanding its humanoid robotics product portfolio and bringing formed strain wave gearboxes to market.
Strain wave gearboxes are key components in actuators which make up around half of the total costs of manufacturing a humanoid.
Strain wave gearboxes can precisely transmit motion with a high torque capacity by utilizing a high gear reduction ratio in extremely compact spaces.
They also offer high accuracy and stiffness, thus satisfying the central requirements of humanoid robot joints.
The manufacturing method currently established in the market for strain wave gearboxes is precision machining.
However, it is time-consuming, capital-intensive and will be a major bottleneck in the scaling of humanoid robots in coming years.
Using an innovative forming technology, Schaeffler now offers a manufacturing method for the strain wave gearbox with a whole new level of efficiency by manufacturing key components in seconds instead of minutes, thereby paving the way for scaling humanoid robot component production to high volumes.
At the same time, it cuts key component manufacturing costs by more than 25 percent and material consumption by more than 75 percent.
Schaeffler has successfully concluded the validation testing of the formed strain wave gearboxes and thereby laid the foundation for the start of mass production in 2027. Production will start in Germany and be successively rolled out to other regions.
Schaeffler has been accumulating know-how in the manufacturing of strain wave gearboxes for the automotive sector using forming for many years. The company has already supplied more than 2 million formed strain wave gearboxes to all major automotive markets in the world during the last ten years.
Now Schaeffler has successfully transferred this manufacturing expertise to the global growth field of humanoid robotics.
David Kehr, president of humanoid robotics at Schaeffler, says: “Schaeffler will take a leading role in the market for humanoid robots.
“We are deploying humanoids along our entire global value chain and therefore have first-hand knowledge of the requirements of this technology and can develop key components based on our know-how.
“Combining our decades of manufacturing experience along with our automotive DNA, we can create solutions geared toward quality, performance, and scalability. The formed strain wave gearbox is another example of how we are readying key robot components for industrial high-volume mass manufacturing.”
Innovative forming technology for strain wave gearboxes
Schaeffler has developed a novel forming process for humanoid robot strain wave gearboxes based on its innovative manufacturing technologies.
Unlike conventional machining, in which high-precision gear geometries are created through material removal, this forming process gets the component into the desired geometrical shape in seconds through the use of high pressing forces.
The formed strain wave gearboxes achieve comparable torques and efficiencies to those achieved by conventionally manufactured components.
The method offers a high dimensional accuracy, reduces material consumption, and at the same time improves process stability.
With this approach, Schaeffler has created a manufacturing process that unites precision, efficiency, and industrial scalability.
It forms the technological basis for the production of these key components with a high-quality level and considerably improved manufacturing efficiency.
