Japan Leads the Market in Industrial Robots
In 2016, the number of industrial robots installed worldwide was 300,000, according to the International Federation of Robotics. In 2018, this had risen to 422,000 with record sales worth $16.5 billion. The IFR anticipates growth of 12% per year until 2022 and sales in that year of 584,000 units. Japan has seen an average annual growth rate in robot sales of 17% since 2013, which the IFR says “is remarkable for a market with an already highly automated industrial production. Japan is the world’s number one industrial robot manufacturer and delivered 52% of the global supply in 2018.” But it’s not just about numbers.
At the Cutting Edge
“As far as industrial robots are concerned, Japan is still at the cutting edge and leads the market, so I think there’s a great benefit to being based in Japan,” says Habe Atsushi, President of Nabtesco Corporation’s Precision Equipment Company, which makes precision reduction gears for industrial robots. Almost all of Japan’s industrial robot manufacturers – Fanuc, Yasukawa, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, etc. – rely on precision reduction gears supplied by Nabtesco.
One of the company’s innovations is a 2-stage reduction mechanism with a cycloidal design that provides greater torque, higher ratios and near zero backlash. Habe says that while there are a number of imitators of his company’s products, they cannot match the quality: “I really believe that our precision reduction gears are unmatched. Robots require high precision, rigidity and reliability and our precision reduction gears do the job perfectly. We have unique capabilities and reliability and I don’t think there is any real competition for us anywhere in the world.”
Nabtesco’s ability to produce high-quality products has enabled the company to take 60% of the global market for precision reduction gears used in the joints of medium- and large-sized industrial robots. The company has produced 10 million units to date and is averaging 800,000 units a year. “We’ve been able to provide what the market has needed,” Habe says.
The Toyota Standard
Takatsu Corporation is another company meeting the demanding requests of its customers, especially one particular customer. Tanaka Shigeki, Takatsu’s Senior General Manager, says working with Toyota means his company has to match the high standards of the car manufacturer: “Toyota’s quality standards are among the most stringent in the world, so we’ve had to measure up to those standards.” Takatsu supplies Toyota with its advanced roller hemming machine, an industrial robot system that joins the edges of car body parts together in a smooth and precise manner. “I think we are the only company that can match their standards,” Takatsu CEO Takatsu Shinichi says.
Takatsu was involved in the development of the conventional pressure hemming machine, but this took up a lot of space. Takatsu’s roller hemming machine improves on this as it has robot arms that bind the inner and outer metal parts of a car together and can handle different vehicle types. “We are aiming to make maintenance-free machines that require no regular inspections even when production exceeds 1 million units over five years,” CEO Takatsu explains.
While Takatsu meets the needs of clients such as Hyundai, Ford, Nissan and Honda worldwide, its closest relationship is with Toyota. “We always think about the quality and precision Toyota demands,” Takatsu CEO Takatsu Shinichi says. “It’s not a matter of numbers; it’s satisfying the standards of Toyota around the world and ultimately satisfying the consumer.”
Eyeing a New Logistics System
Industrial robots are not just used in manufacturing. Kyoto Robotics is giving robots in the logistics field “eyes” with its 3-dimensional vision system so that the machines are able to carry out sorting, packaging and palletizing. The “eyes” are vision sensors that are processed by the robot’s software to give it spatial awareness and enable its arms and hands to handle products and packages. Kyoto Robotics produced the first vision sensors for robots and solved the problem of how to enable robots to see in three dimensions and get them to respond according to what they see. Kyoto Robotics has been working with logistics companies such as Sagawa Express and Hitachi Logistics. “One of the reasons why we work with large-scale logistics companies is because robotic systems are not cheap and they are usually run around the clock,” says Kyoto Robotics President Xu Gang, who points out that robots don’t get tired or sick and can work in any environment.
Xu founded the company while he was a professor at Ritsumeikan University and has been supported by government-related entities such as the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) and the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan. “We’re really grateful for that assistance and the help of Ritsumeikan,” Xu says. “Basically, we’ve carried out our own R&D, but we have to think on a broader scale in the future. I believe that in 10 years’ time, robot sales will rise from 400,000 per annum to a million and will continue to expand.”
Working with Humans
Nabtesco’s Habe agrees. “The use of industrial robots and automation in industry is just going to accelerate further,” he says. “Looking ahead, I think robots will start to acquire ‘brains’ and will work with human beings. In this respect, I think both the software side and the hardware side will see great development.”
Xu of Kyoto Robotics sees the increased use of robotic labor alongside human labor as a natural progression. “In logistics, the number of man-hours required is increasing, resulting in labor shortages,” he says. “I think it is inevitable that industry will make a transition from human labor to robots in the future.” But Xu does not see the advances in robotics making humans redundant. “Working together with robots gives us the opportunity to overcome these labor issues,” he says. “We want to be a provider of a sustainable system that contributes to society and social issues.”
Note: All Japanese names in this advertorial are given in the traditional format, with the family name preceding the given name.
To learn more about Nabtesco Corporation, click here.
To learn more about Takatsu Manufacturing Co., Ltd., click here.
To learn more about Kyoto Robotics Corporation, click here.
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