Harmonic drive reducer is a new type of reducer developed based on the principle of planetary gear transmission, which consists of a wave generator, flexible wheel, rigid wheel and flexible bearing dedicated to harmonic reducers. It is a kind of planetary gear transmission that transmits power and motion through elastic mechanical waves generated by flexible components. Special bearings are required for harmonic reducers. Featuring large transmission ratio, high precision and compact size, harmonic reducers are widely adopted transmission devices in industrial robots, medical equipment, precision machine tools and other fields. Bearing selection is extremely critical for harmonic reducers as precision transmission equipment.

The harmonic reducer boasts high reduction ratio, light weight and outstanding transmission precision. Its basic structure contains a rigid wheel, a flexible wheel and a wave generator. The flexible thin-wall bearing is mounted on the camshaft to form the wave generator together with the camshaft. The flexible wheel is sleeved on the outer ring of the bearing of the wave generator, and power and motion are transmitted through meshing staggered gear teeth of the rigid wheel and flexible wheel. As one of the core components of robots, reducers have long been an important basic part restricting the technological and industrial development of domestic industrial robots in China. Precision flexible thin-wall bearings act as the central key components of harmonic reducers, and their performance directly determines the overall performance of harmonic reducers.

The flexible thin-wall bearing is an indispensable component of harmonic reducers, whose precision and stability directly decide the performance of harmonic reducers. Rolled flexible thin-wall bearings have prominent strengths including large transmission ratio, high precision, small size, light weight and strong load capacity. It can realize the transmission of force and motion by means of its controllable deformation. The flexible thin-wall bearing is installed on an elliptical camshaft. When the camshaft serves as the input shaft, the flexible thin-wall bearing produces periodic controllable deformation, driving the flexible wheel to deform correspondingly and mesh with the rigid wheel teeth to achieve large reduction ratio transmission.