From reactive processes to continuous, predictable, and data-driven value creation
Nabtesco is advancing the evolution of drive technology, aiming to enable machines to independently realise their full efficiency potential and continuously optimise their performance for smart, self-financed production
The company is set to make a decisive contribution to the implementation of Physical AI in modern production processes with its first volume-neutral digital strain-wave gearbox.
Physical AI can designate the combination of AI with real physical systems. The aim is to continuously record conditions, detect deviations, and adjust behaviour in real time.
Physical AI must deal with a dynamic world that is often prone to errors, as machines, robots, and plants operate under changing conditions that include different temperatures, loads, friction, vibrations, and wear. These conditions require systems that can respond to changes flexibly and promptly and adapt their movement and load profiles accordingly.
Daniel Obladen, director sales and marketing at Nabtesco Precision Europe, said, “Our objective is to be a part of an industrial ecosystem, one that becomes ever more capable at self-optimising, detecting errors early on, making maintenance plannable, and using data to improve continuously. The goal is to shape production operations that are resilient, intelligent, and efficient enough to virtually finance themselves – through minimised downtime costs, reduced energy consumption and enhanced, more predictable productivity.”
Nabtesco’s digital strain wave gear is a space-neutral solution, developed and produced in Limburg an der Lahn. It can enable precise status assessment during ongoing operation, and the gearbox records measured variables such as torque and temperature, analysing them on board- paving the way for adaptive optimisation of the drive.
This approach enables targeted improvements in system performance, real-time calculation of the gearbox’s actual life, and early-stage fault detection. It also helps identify overload, unsuitable operating points, and misuse, thereby reducing downtime, avoiding damage, and extending the lifetime.
Large amounts of data are needed to model physical processes and optimise behaviour under real-world conditions. With quality being the decisive factor, high-quality data springs from experience, expertise, and an understanding of the system.
Obladen said, “We know exactly how our gearboxes behave under load, under wear or under the influence of temperature and lubricants. This knowledge puts us in a position to classify the measured values correctly from a technical standpoint and translate them into usable information.”
This experience is complemented by adcos' mechatronics expertise, which serves the group of companies as a specialised development partner for embedded systems and mechatronic system solutions.
