Compared with general reducers, robot reducers have advantages such as small size, high power, light weight, and easy control. In fact, there are two main types of reducers widely used in articulated robots: RV reducers and harmonic reducers. So, which one has more advantages over these two types of reducers? What are the principles, advantages, and disadvantages of the two? Can they replace each other? Let's learn about it together.

Harmonic reducers are used for industrial robots with small loads or for the end axes of large robots. Harmonic reducers are used for small robots due to their small size, light weight, high load-bearing capacity, high motion accuracy, and large single-stage transmission ratio.

Harmonic reducer is one of the harmonic transmission devices, which includes an accelerator and a reducer. The main structures of harmonic reducers include rigid wheels, flexible wheels, bearings, and wave generators, all of which are indispensable. Among them, the number of teeth on the rigid wheel is slightly greater than that on the flexible wheel.

RV reducers are commonly used in robot joints with high torque, specifically in the leg, waist, and elbow joints. For industrial robots with heavy loads, RV reducers are used for the first, second, and third axes. Compared with harmonic reducers, RV reducers have higher fatigue strength, stiffness, and lifespan. The disadvantages of harmonic reducers also include reduced motion accuracy over time. In contrast to the advantages of lightweight and small volume of harmonic reducers, the disadvantages of RV reducers are their heavy weight and larger external dimensions.

Both are low tooth difference meshing, but the difference is that a key gear in harmonics has flexibility and requires repeated high-speed deformation, making it more fragile. Therefore, compared with RV reducers, harmonic reducers have lower load-bearing capacity and shorter service life. RV reducers generally use cycloidal pinwheels, and harmonics used involute tooth profiles before. Now some manufacturers use double arc tooth profiles, which are higher than involute.

Compared with harmonic reducers, RV reducers are a newly emerging transmission product. RV reducers are actually developed on the basis of traditional needle and thread wheel reducers. They not only overcome the disadvantages of general needle pendulum transmission, but also have more advantages, such as long service life, stable accuracy, high efficiency, smooth transmission, etc. They are small in size, light in weight, and have a wide range of transmission ratios.