Press Release

NSK Develops PB Series of Megatorque Motor™

Expanded Sales for Electronic Device Manufacturing Industry

PB Series of Megatorque Motor

Tokyo, Japan, June 23, 2014 - NSK Ltd. (NSK; Headquarters: Tokyo, Japan; President and CEO: Norio Otsuka) today announced that it has developed a new PB Series to add to its Megatorque Motor™ direct drive motor (DD motor) lineup, which is popular with production equipment applications. This new series is designed for conveyance, inspection and assembly equipment for electronic components and other equipment. The need for this kind of product is very high in Japan, China, Taiwan, and South Korea. The new series boasts more specialized features than existing products, aiming to increase the application range of DD motors and to improve throughput*1 (productivity) and reliability.

NSK will launch this series in May 2014 and is targeting 900 million yen in global annual sales by 2015.

*1: Amount of processing per unit time.

Development Background

As the demand for smartphones and tablets has increased, there has been a rapid expansion in the production of electronic components in East Asia, including Japan, China, Taiwan, and South Korea. In response to this increase in demand, manufacturers have been upgrading and expanding their equipment. Also, in developing countries, there is a strong demand for ease-of-use as many employees are not used to operating such equipment. Also, there is a demand for less maintenance as well as more compactness due to space constraints.

In response to these new market needs, NSK has added the PB Series of its Megatorque Motor™ to its lineup.

Product Features

1. Easy to Use
Improved auto tuning function that makes initial settings simple to perform, whereby achieving faster equipment startup. In addition, there is a dedicate software program for further ease-of-use.
2. Compact
Compared to the current series, the motor is 12% more compact and the driver is 47% more compact.

Main Application Examples and Benefit

Application   Benefit
  • Supply, inspection and sorting equipment for electronic component manufacturing processes
  • Smartphone assembly equipment
  • Reagent/specimen analysis devices
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  • Makes rotational and conveyance mechanisms more compact
  • Reduces equipment startup time
  • Improves inspection accuracy and sorting rates
  • Improves throughput (amount of processing per unit time)
  • Improves line capacity

NSK began mass production of Megatorque Motor™, the worlds-first direct drive motor, in 1985. Since then NSK has continued to advance this series of motors as the technology evolves for advanced manufacturing equipment for such applications as semiconductors and LCDs in Western countries and Japan. In recent years, as the manufacturing of electronic components for LED and related products has boomed in China, Taiwan and South Korea, NSK has supplied a great deal of Megatorque Motor™ products. NSK has worked diligently to reflect the voice of its customers in its product planning and to strengthen its marketing activities in Japan and East Asia, which is on the verge of becoming the manufacturing heartland for electronic components. NSK will continue to respond to the needs of the market and provide Megatorque Motor™ products to the world.

Development Background
Product Overview