Midea Group's Layout In Harmonic Drive Industry

On August 5, 2022, according to the information released on the official account of Midea Group, the project of "research and application of high precision and long life design technology of harmonic reducer" led by the Central Research Institute of Midea Group and jointly completed by the industrial technology business group of Midea Group, and Guangdong Jiya precision machinery Technology Co., Ltd. was considered by the appraisal committee that the overall performance of the harmonic reducer developed by the project reached the "international advanced" level. The cam shape, the design technology of flex spline wall thickness and tooth profile have reached the "international leading" level.

Midea Group pointed out that the main technical innovation points of the project achievements include: 

(1) Cam compound curve design technology based on bearing load bearing and life driving. 

(2) The optimization design technology of flex spline wall thickness shape based on multi-objective optimization. 

(3) Tooth profile design method based on the radial elastic deformation of wave generator.

The technology innovated by Midea Group in this project enables harmonic reducers to have higher accuracy and longer design life, greatly improving the performance of harmonic reducers and reducing various losses caused by reducer damage. It can be widely used in many industrial fields such as robots, machine tools, carrier / AGV (automatic guided vehicle), logistics transportation equipment, and automobile manufacturing.

The harmonic reducer product developed by applying the above technology has been tested by the national industrial robot quality supervision and Inspection Center (Guangdong), and the comprehensive performance level of the product has reached the same level as that of the leading enterprises in the industry. The product has also passed the 10000-hour life test of KUKA robot Co., Ltd. after the test, the accuracy degradation of the product is less than 0.5 arc minute, the stiffness K1 degradation is less than 30%, and the accuracy retention is internationally leading.

Harmonic reducer independently developed by Midea Group

According to the enterprise investigation data, Guangdong Jiya Precision Machinery Technology Co., Ltd., the participant in the project, was established on July 5, 2021, with a registered capital of 100 million yuan. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Midea Group (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.

Midea Group has been vigorously recruiting for its harmonic reducer business since last year. As stated by Midea Group, the company has established an industry-leading Sino-Japanese joint research and development team, which has invested heavily in the research and development of high-precision and long-life reducers for robots, researched the forward design technology with independent intellectual property rights, systematically solved the technical problems of localization in this field, and realized the industrialization of technical research and development achievements.

On April 19, 2022, Guangdong Jiya Precision Machinery Technology Co., Ltd. issued a tender announcement for the production project of robot core precision parts. The total investment in the project is 50 million yuan. Through the construction of a high-voltage powerhouse, fire protection, environmental protection, and the purchase of intelligent equipment such as an external gear grinder and external rail mill, Integrate green lean manufacturing and process technology to build a high-speed, high-quality, high-stability digital intelligence workshop for the production of robot core precision parts with short delivery period. After the completion of the project, it is expected that the main business income will be 383.2 million yuan and the total tax payment will be 25.023 million yuan. The project period is from April 1, 2022, to December 1, 2024. It can be seen that Midea Group is determined to invest in the harmonic reducer business.

It is worth noting that Midea Group can provide fertile soil for the verification of robot harmonic reducer. According to the annual report of Midea Group in 2021, KUKA, a subsidiary of Midea Group, is the first robot manufacturer in the world to bring sensitive and light robots into the production workshop, and the first manufacturer to fully cover collaboration robots, mobile robots, and industrial heavy robots.

In 2021, the robot and automation business division, one of the five business segments of Midea Group, achieved a revenue of 25.3 billion yuan, an increase of 23% year on year. This indicates that the labor pains of KUKA may have passed, ushering in a new turning point of localization development in China.

In order to guarantee and accelerate the implementation of R & D projects, KUKA China has established the first digital laboratory of Midea Group, which is also the largest laboratory in China's robot industry at present, with an area of more than 10000 square meters. It can realize drive system verification experiment, motor verification experiment, reducer verification experiment, controller development experiment, operating system platform development and verification, Mada experiment, robot system verification, AGV development and verification, application software development experiments, and digital cloud platform development and verification, etc., fully covering various verification requirements of core components, robot ontology, and system application layer.

In 2022, one of the business priorities of Midea Group is to promote the localized operation of KUKA in China, increase investment in product development and application, and research and development innovation of core components and software systems; On the market side, on the basis of maintaining the advantages in the automobile field, actively expand new businesses such as new energy, general industry, electronics, medical treatment, logistics, and services; On the business side, focus on research and development, supply chain management, excellent operation and digitization, and accelerate the building of the core competitiveness of robotics and industrial automation business.

As mentioned above, the harmonic reducer independently developed by Midea Group has passed the 10000-hour life test of KUKA robot Co., Ltd. In the future, with the batch verification of the harmonic reducer on the KUKA robot, Midea Group will continue to develop and iterate products according to the application feedback of harmonic reducer products.

In addition, Midea Group has nearly realized an all-around layout in the core parts of the robot. The industrial technology business group of Guangdong Jiya Precision Machinery Technology Co., Ltd. has been able to professionally develop, produce and sell high-precision core component products such as compressors, motors, chips, frequency converters, servo systems, and heat dissipation modules. It has many brands such as Meizhi, Weiling, Meiren, Dongzhi, Hekang, Riye, Gaochuang, and Dongling. Its products are widely used in household appliances, 3C products New energy vehicles, and industrial automation.

Mr. Lu Hanchen, director of the robot industry Research Institute, said: "I feel more and more clearly the 'rhythm' of Midea in the field of robotics. After the continuous decline after the acquisition of KUKA, there are many noisy doubts. But looking back, Midea has gradually completed the closed-loop of the whole industrial chain layout from core components to ontology manufacturing, and then to integrated applications. Even the harmonic reducer that the four big families did not touch in the past has been developed. The strategy of autonomy and localization has been further deepened. In the short term, external uncertainty still exists, and the contradiction in the supply side needs to be alleviated. In the medium and long term, innovative products and forms of robots will continue to emerge, and the demand for upstream core components will increase. "

So, after laying out harmonic reducers mainly used for light load robots, it is worth looking forward to whether Midea Group will further develop RV reducers for heavy load robots in the future.