Harmonic Drive AG

Harmonic Drive AG is the name specified for this commercial company. The supplied company-history source describes the present corporate name as Harmonic Drive SE and places its headquarters in Limburg-Offheim, Hesse, Germany. The business began in 1970 as Harmonic Drive System GmbH in Langen, moved to Limburg an der Lahn in 1988, became Harmonic Drive Antriebstechnik GmbH in 1994, converted to a stock corporation in 1999, and converted to a Societas Europaea in December 2019. The company develops, produces, and distributes precision gear and drive products. Its offerings include Harmonic Drive gear component sets, units, gearbox assemblies, planetary gearboxes, servo drives, servo motors, servo controllers, and special drives for rotary and linear motion. It also provides services in these areas. The supplied sources emphasize compactness, precision, low backlash, and customized drive engineering from development through serial production. The company’s stated application fields include robotics, handling and automation, general mechanical engineering, aerospace, defence, medical technology, and semiconductor technology. Its products are also used in machine tools, packaging and printing machinery, measurement equipment, and glass- and wood-processing machinery. The company-history source cites use in the Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers and across the Airbus family, including the A380. Its homepage presents aerospace, robotics and automation, defence, general mechanical engineering, and medical technology as areas of application. The company-history source reports that Harmonic Drive Systems Inc. acquired a majority stake in the company, with the transaction completed in March 2017; it lists that company and Innovation Network Corporation of Japan as shareholders. The supplied sources do not establish current executive names or a more recent ownership breakdown.

The supplied company-history source says that the Harmonic Drive gear technology was developed in 1955 by Clarence Walton Musser on behalf of NASA. The corporate history began later: Harmonic Drive System GmbH was founded in Langen in 1970. The company moved to Limburg an der Lahn in 1988 because the former premises no longer met its requirements. In 1994 it changed its name to Harmonic Drive Antriebstechnik GmbH. In 1998 the company invested in CNC machine tools, specialist tools, testing machines, and inspection equipment at its Limburg site. According to the source, this supported development and production of Harmonic Drive gearboxes and enabled the company to develop and manufacture gearboxes and special drives for the European market, alongside complete drive systems and customized system solutions. The company became a stock corporation in 1999. The source reports that Interglobal Industrieholding GmbH, owned by Reinhard Ernst, sold its majority stake to Tokyo-based Harmonic Drive Systems Inc. in December 2016, with the sale completed on 22 March 2017. It lists Harmonic Drive Systems Inc. with 74.7% and Innovation Network Corporation of Japan with 25.3%. In December 2019, the company converted to a Societas Europaea (SE), which is the corporate form reflected in the supplied German Wikipedia article title and text. The company develops, produces, and distributes gear component sets, gearbox units and assemblies, planetary gearboxes, servo drives, motors and controllers, and special drives. Applications identified in the supplied sources span robotics, mechanical engineering, aerospace, semiconductor technology, and medical technology, as well as defence, automation, and various types of machinery. The company homepage describes a focus on precision, low backlash, quality, and customized drive engineering, from development to serial production. The supplied history cites Harmonic Drive products aboard the Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers and across the Airbus family, including the A380. The sources provided do not identify founders of the company, current executives, or a more recent ownership structure.

• 2019

  Converted to a Societas Europaea

• 2017

  Share sale completed

• 2016

  Majority stake sale announced

• 1999

  Converted to a stock corporation

• 1998

  Investment in development and production equipment

• 1994

  Renamed Harmonic Drive Antriebstechnik GmbH

• 1988

  Move to Limburg an der Lahn

• 1970

  Company founded as Harmonic Drive System GmbH

• 1955

  Harmonic Drive gear technology developed

Precision, compact, low-backlash and customizable drive technology, with products designed for demanding industrial and specialized applications.

• Gear component sets

  Harmonic Drive component sets are offered in different product series and sizes.

• Units

  Units combine a component set with a stiff output bearing for integration into machines.

• Gearbox assemblies

  Gearbox assemblies combine a component set with a housing and an output flange or output shaft.

• Planetary gearboxes

  Planetary gearboxes are offered for reduction ratios below 30:1 in different configurations and accuracy classes.

• Servo drives, motors, and controllers

  Servo systems combine precision gears with matched AC or DC motors; the product range also includes fully digital servo controllers.

• Special drives

  Special drives are available in different configurations for rotary and linear motion.

• 2019

  Corporate form changed to SEOther

• 2017

  Majority ownership transferred to Harmonic Drive Systems Inc.Other

1. 1Harmonic Drive: Präzisionsgetriebe & Antriebstechnikharmonicdrive.de
2. 2Harmonic Drive SEde.wikipedia.org
3. 3Harmonic Drive AGwikidata.org