Press release -
Nidec-Shimpo’s FLEXWAVE Precision Reducers are Adopted for Use in Communications Satellites’ Antennas
Nidec-Shimpo Corporation (the “Company” or “we”) announced today that precision control reducers of its FLEXWAVE series have been adopted to control the antennas of communications satellites produced by Canadian artificial satellite manufacturer MDA Ltd. (“MDA”).
FLEXWAVE series reducers
OneWeb’s communications satellite
*Two FLEXWAVE reducers are used in each of the satellite’s round antennas (i.e., four reducers are used per satellite), which always face the Earth when the satellite is in operation.MDA, headquartered in Ontario, Canada, manufactures and sells artificial satellites, satellite systems, and robots for space use, among other products, and the Company’s FLEXWAVE reducers are used to control the antennas of MDA-produced satellites.
Since their launch in June 2015, the FLEXWAVE series reducers have been adopted for use in, for example, the joints of small industrial robots and the drives of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and a total of more than one million units have been shipped as of the end of October 2022.
MDA’s satellites, which are used by OneWeb LLC, an Airbus-sponsored company, and have been decided lately to be adopted by another company (name undisclosed) as well. Among the approximately 3,000 FLEXWAVE reducers that have been shipped for controlling satellite antennas as of October 2022, none of them have been found defective so far, proving that the Company’s FLEXWAVE reducers meet the quality required for the space industry.
In recent years, the aerospace industry is booming overseas and elsewhere, partially thanks to the entry of private companies. Those reducers to be used for space satellites are required to be produced with advanced technology and be of high-quality, as they are exposed to a vacuum environment where lubricating their components is extremely difficult, with the temperature changing widely, and so instantly, within the range of approximately -120ºC to +130ºC.
We will stay committed to providing various fields with high-efficiency industrial machines that utilize our reducer-and continuously variable transmission-based knowhow, and contributing to a variety of markets.
For more details on the above product, please contact Nidec-Shimpo Corporation’s Administrative Support Group (Tel.: +81-75-958-3670).
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Nidec was established in Kyoto, Japan in 1973 by its Chairman Shigenobu Nagamori. In 1979, Nidec became the first company in the world to successfully commercialize a direct drive spindle motor for HDDs based on a brushless DC motor. Since then, the company has grown into a world-leading comprehensive motor manufacturer encompassing more than 300 subsidiaries employing over 100,000 people throughout the world and with annual sales exceeding $13B. Nidec's motors, drives, generators and related products are found in a diverse range of applications including computers, smartphones, home appliances, automobiles, manufacturing plants, robots and more.
