Why is rv reducer Better?

16 Jun.,2025

 

RV reducers - ATB Automation

The RV (rotate vector) reducer offers numerous advantages, including compact size, strong shock resistance, high
torque, excellent positioning accuracy, low vibration, and a large reduction ratio.

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It overcomes the shortcomings of general cycloidal pinwheel transmission and addresses the issue of significant precision loss in harmonic drives during prolonged operation.

The RV reducer offers higher fatigue strength, rigidity, longer service life, and stable backlash accuracy.
As a result, it is applied in industrial robots, CNC machines, medical diagnostic equipment, robotic arms, and satellite reception systems, among other fields.

Transmission principle

In the gear transmission of the reducer, the eccentric portion of the input shaft rotates, driving the external gear to perform an eccentric motion. During this movement, the eccentric shaft engages the external gear with the internal gear. Due to the difference in the number of teeth (n) between the internal and external gears, when the eccentric shaft completes one rotation, the external gear lags
behind the internal gear by n teeth, resulting in a differential gear ratio.

Structural Introduction

Depending on the different positions of the fixed point, input, and output, the rotation direction and speed ratio vary as shown in the diagram.

RV reducer VS Harmonic reducer, which performance is better?

There are two main types of retarders widely used in joint robots: RV retarder and harmonic retarder. So, for these two reducer, which has the advantage? What are the principles, advantages and disadvantages of the two? Can they replace each other? Let's find out.

Harmonic reducer is used for industrial robots with small loads, or several axes at the end of large robots, harmonic reducer for small robots are characterized by small size, light weight, large carrying capacity, high motion accuracy, and large single-stage transmission ratio.

The harmonic reducer is one of the harmonic transmission devices, and the harmonic transmission device includes an accelerator and a reducer. The main structure of harmonic reducer is rigid wheel, flexwheel, bearing and wave generator, all of which are indispensable. Among them, the number of teeth of the rigid wheel is slightly greater than the number of teeth of the flexible wheel.

RV reducer is often used in the robot joints with large torque, specifically the three joints of the leg waist and elbow, the load is large industrial robots, and the RV reducer is used in one, two and three axes. RV reducer compared with the harmonic reducer has higher fatigue strength, stiffness and life, the disadvantages of harmonic reducer also include, with the use of time growth, motion accuracy will be reduced, with the harmonic reducer light weight small size of the advantages of the opposite, RV reducer disadvantage is its heavy weight, large size.

Both are less tooth difference meshing, the difference is that a key gear in the harmonics is flexible, the need for repeated high-speed deformation, and therefore more vulnerable, so the bearing capacity and service life of the harmonic reducer compared with the RV reducer, the bearing capacity is low and the life is short. RV reducer is generally used cycloidal needle wheel, harmonic used before the involute tooth shape, and now some manufacturers use double circular arc tooth shape, which is more advanced than the involute.

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Compared with the harmonic reducer, RV reducer is a new rise of transmission products, RV reducer is actually developed on the basis of the traditional needle and thread reducer, not only to overcome the shortcomings of the general needle pendulum transmission, but also has more advantages, such as long life, maintain stable accuracy, high efficiency, smooth transmission, small size, light weight, speed change ratio range.

For the question of whether the two can be replaced, there are actually two kinds of statements in general.

1. It can be replaced, but only some models can be replaced. The RV reducer we have mentioned earlier has much higher fatigue strength, rigidity and life than the harmonic drive commonly used in robots, and the precision of the return difference is stable, and the accuracy of the motion will be significantly reduced as the harmonic drive with the increase in the use of time. Therefore, many countries of high-precision robot transmission more RV reducer, so there is a development trend, RV reducer gradually began to replace the harmonic reducer in advanced robot transmission.

Harmonic reducer is characterized by light and small, in this respect, the planet and RV is difficult to do. Therefore, all kinds of reducers can only be replaced in a part of the case, but it is unrealistic to replace another product in a full range of products.

For the question of whether the two can be replaced, there are actually two kinds of statements in general.

These products do have an alternative relationship on some models, but these types of reducers can only be partially replaced. In most cases, various types of reducer are difficult to replace.

2, The second is that all kinds of reducer can not be replaced, only complementary.

The two types of reducer, RV and harmonic, are complementary, but they do not exclude the formation of local competition in some application areas after structural design optimization and manufacturing process breakthroughs.

This is the comparison of RV reducer and harmonic reducer, between the two can not be said to be completely can replace each other, and the function of each reducer and the advantages are very different, enterprises should integrate the use of robot joints and the different performance of the reducer, choose the reducer products more suitable for the development of enterprises.

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