Harmonic Drive

We exist in a consumer driven world where product development and innovation moves rapidly. In the fight to keep pace, manufacturers can be tempted to compromise on quality, but here, Graham Mackrell, Managing Director of Harmonic Drive UK, has explained why companies need to be stringent and avoid cutting corners.

If you are looking to improve the accuracy and efficiency of applications within the aerospace, medical and automotive sectors, then the experts from high precision gearing manufacturer Harmonic Drive AG are who you want to see at this year’s SPS IPC Drives show in Nuremberg. Harmonic Drive AG will be launching its FHA-C Mini Servo Actuators with Absolute MZE encoder at stand 119 in hall four, from 28th-30th November 2017.

At this year’s IAAF World Athletics Championships, we saw the pinnacle of the athletic calendar take place in London earlier this month. Millions of viewers around the world tuned in to see the stars Mo Farah and Usain Bolt’s final races, which didn’t actually go to plan. However the picture everyone at home was watching did perform. Here, Graham Mackrell, Managing Director of precision gearing specialist Harmonic Drive, talks us through the gearing requirements that were in place for the broadcast cameras.

When you think about it, going into space is considered as such an amazing concept. Astronauts are highly trained and are at the peak of physical fitness, space shuttles are crafted by large teams of expert engineers and all the technology used is so high-tech it’s as if it belongs to science fiction. Graham Mackrell, Managing Director of precision gearing specialist Harmonic Drive UK, explains why its strain wave gears have been the top choice in space for over forty years.

Sometimes it can be the smallest thing that makes something revolutionary. Take Otto Rohwedder for example, he took a stroke of inspiration to combine automatic bread wrapping equipment with cutting functionality, and there we had sliced bread.

A new gearbox range, CSF-2UP, designed for medical technology, robotics and measuring-instrument applications, has been launched by Harmonic Drive UK. Expected to be worth $7.85bn by 2020, according to MarketsandMarkets, the smart and collaborative robotics sector is particularly dependent on compact and ultra lightweight gears.

Have you ever been at a festival or sporting event and wondered what them ‘things’ whizzing around in the sky were? These are the systems that enable television cameras to move both vertically and horizontally, tracking action quickly, fluently and accurately. To allow it to do this, the system employs incredibly specialised gears. 

A new series of lightweight gears, IridiumLine, has been launched by Harmonic Drive UK, featuring an extremely large hollow shaft with a diameter up to 60% of the total gear diameter. The new design has been achieved without restricting torque capacity, making the IridiumLine ideal for applications such as industrial, robotics, military, defence and aerospace, where the light weight and compact, high precision gear offers the ultimate integration and reliability.

At the Engineering Design Show, which is taking place from 19th-20th October, 2016 at the Ricoh Arena, Harmonic Drive will be showcasing its range of servo actuators and gears. The products on display on stand G50 are ideally suited to support design engineers creating innovative solutions for applications across robotics, automation, medical, defence and aerospace sectors.

As far back as 1925, Scottish inventor John Logie Baird successfully transmitted the first recognisable image using a device he called the Televisor. However, the technology was held back until after 1947 when John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley of Bell Laboratories co-invented the transistor.

Harmonic Drive UK has launched CanisDrive, a new range of compact hollow shaft servo actuators that meet increasing industry demand for compact and cost-effective machinery. The actuator’s lightweight and condensed design enables manufacturers to drive down overall design costs without sacrificing performance.

Harmonic Drive UK will be attending marine science and ocean technology showcase Oceanology International (Oi16) in March 2016. The event runs for three days from 15 March to 17 March  at London’s ExCeL convention centre, with Harmonic Drive exhibiting a range of products at stand C10.

Harmonic Drive UK has launched TorkDrive a new multi-pole direct-drive torque motor designed for applications including rotary transfer machines, rotary tables, machining centres, roller and cylinder drives as well as positioning and handling axes. The multi-pole design of the motor components allows the drive to transmit high torque at low to medium rotational speeds.

Gearing specialist Harmonic Drive UK has launched TorkDrive a multi-pole direct-drive torque motor designed for applications including rotary transfer machines, rotary tables, machining centres, roller and cylinder drives as well as positioning and handling axes. The multi-pole design of the motor components allows the drive to transmit high torque at low to medium rotational speeds.

A range of servo actuators designed to be customisable for high precision applications has been released by Harmonic Drive UK. SolutionKit offers all of the benefits of an off-the-shelf actuation system, without the typical product development drawbacks. The range caters for the needs of users in specialist applications, including military, aerospace, defence, pharmaceuticals and food processing.

Harmonic Drive will be exhibiting its range of high precision servo actuators, used in land and sea applications, at DSEI, the defence and security equipment international exhibition. DSEI will take place from September 15-18, 2015 at the ExCel arena in London and Harmonic Drive can be found on stand number S6-315 in the German pavilion.

Harmonic Drive UK has launched a new range of planetary gears targeted at users that require accuracy and low backlash. The new HPN range is designed for applications including packaging, printing, machine tools, and pharmacy management as well as pick and place robotics.

Following the review by Lord Perkins calling for collaboration, Harmonic Drive UK is calling for universities and academic partners as part of a concerted effort to tackle the graduate skills shortage.

The ongoing pressure on engineering companies to reduce costs, increase efficiency and yield a higher ROI is pushing many business leaders to consider alternatives to direct-drive motor systems in the form of various mechanical transmission solutions. Although gearing systems can offer simplicity, cost effectiveness and flexibility, it's not always clear which type of setup is best to use.

Harmonic Drive UK has launched a new gear component set for use in robotics and motion control. The market for motion control experienced a 6 per cent rise in 2014, reaching a revenue of $12.2bn, according to a recent survey by the IHS. Similarly, the industrial robotics market is growing by 6.2 per cent annually and is currently worth $28.9bn. Expecting this growth to continue for the rest of 2015, Harmonic Drive has developed a new, shorter, SHD drive targeting the trend for smaller, lighter rigs.