Micro Harmonic Drive — 12 Benefits in detail:
1. Zero backlash with miniature dimensions
Micro Harmonic Drive Gears are inherently free from backlash—flexible planetary gears produce the necessary radial pretension in the gearbox for the product's entire lifetime.
2. Greater efficiency for minimal power loss
Micro Harmonic Drive Gears achieve an efficiency rate of up to 82 % under rated operating conditions. For the same reduction ratio, the small number of meshed teeth is a significant advantage over other gear arrangements.
3. Very high reliability
Due to their low component count in comparison to other gear arrangements, Micro Harmonic Drive Gearboxes have a markedly improved MTBF value (Mean Time Between Failure). Substantially fewer components are required for a given reduction ratio, a fact that fundamentally increases reliability.
4. Excellent repeatability for precise positioning
The absence of backlash in Micro Harmonic Drive products gives them repeatability of only a few angle seconds. Ideal for precise positioning tasks in the sub-µm range.
5. Extremely low profile design for compact equipment dimensions
The axial length of Micro Harmonic Drive Gearboxes is
independent of reduction ratio, thus they are typically 50 %
shorter than other micro gears.
6. High torque dynamics for faster indexing applications
Because of its special structure, the Micro Harmonic Drive Gear has very little moment of inertia and this allows extremely fast angular movements, e.g. a turn of 180° in less than 80 milliseconds can be realised.
7. Low life cycle costs
Micro Harmonic Drive Gearboxes have a rated service life of 2500 hours in normal operation. In practice this typically corresponds to many millions of cycles so that they usually outlive the equipment in which they are installed. The consequence for you: substantially lower life cycle costs.
8. Low mass, ideal for portable equipment
The low weight of these gearboxes also reduces the overall mass of the moving components. Advantage:
higher thermal stability, smaller temperature rise, higher acceleration, usage of smaller basic actuators.
9. Exact motor control
Since a gear reduction ratio produces a quadratic reduction of load-side moment of inertia with respect to motor-side inertia, motor regulation is barely influenced in practical applications by the mass moment of inertia.
10. Hollow shaft potential
The centre axis of the hollow shaft option can be used for the supply of air or vacuum, to allow laser beams to pass or as a passageway for fibre optic conductors through the gearbox. This can be exploited to simplify equipment design or eliminate complex actuator bypass configurations.
11. Stable, accurately-guided output bearing
Due to the great bearing strength afforded by the O-arrangement of pre-tensioned ball bearings used for the output bearing, most applications will require no further support bearings. The gearbox's tight geometric tolerances as well as small axial and radial rotating faults of less then 5 µm allow mirrors, filters, lenses or tools to be directly attached to the output shaft.
12. Extreme ambient conditions
The Micro Harmonic Drive Gear really shines with its corrosion resistance, large temperature range (—160° C to + 150°C), impunity to sterilisation, utilisation in ultra high vacuum and by virtue of its high-grade materials, like the stainless steel used for its housing, input and output shafts, bearings and the gear assembly made of an NiFe alloy.
