Cycloidal drive

The cycloidal disc has holes that are larger (by an amount equal to the eccentricity of the input shaft) than the output roller pins that go inside them.

Since these shafts are always aligned by the input gears this allows the output to be transmitted through roller bearings rather than intermittent surface contact.

Due to the planetary input this is effectively a two-stage drive and may be designed to be directly driven by a high speed brushless motor.

Cycloidal drives can feature zero backlash and high torque capacity while being compact in size, unlike Involute gearboxes.

Cycloidal drives may be designed with significantly higher contact areas for their size than any gear-based transmission such as epicyclic gearing.

They apply force through many of the teeth at once, allowing very high torque output relative to size at the cost of requiring sliding contact.

Subsequently, in 1931, he founded his company, Cyclo GmbH, in Munich and began serial production of cycloid gearboxes in the 1930s.

The unique Cyclo principle behind the cycloid gearbox continues to shape the product range of Sumitomo Drive Technologies to this day.