Industrial arm supply chain map: who makes each part, and where
The Office of Strategic Capital lends in areas that include robots, batteries and sensors, and reviews a borrower's suppliers for foreign influence. Most magnets and many reducers, cells and cameras come from one country, so a humanoid built from the usual suppliers has makers owned from there at several joints.
The Verdex physical AI map shows the companies at every step of this chain, where their plants are, and how each stands under the rules that apply to the sector. Each step below opens its own page: what happens at that step, who does it, and where.
Materials
- Nd/Pr metal: Neodymium and praseodymium metal, the main rare-earth input to the magnet alloy.
- Dysprosium and terbium: Heavy rare earths for coercivity at rotor temperature, put in by grain-boundary diffusion (or alloyed in on older grades).
- Gear steel: Alloy steel bar and forgings machined into the flexspline, circular spline and gear trains.
- Bearing steel: Through-hardening bearing steel (100Cr6 = SAE 52100 = SUJ2 class) for bearing rings and the reducer's output bearing.
- Encoder sensor IC: Hall or magnetoresistive absolute position sensor IC, two per joint.
Motors and drives
- NdFeB alloy powder: Melting and strip casting of Nd-Fe-B alloy, 200 to 400 um flakes; hydrogen decrepitation to under 2 mm; jet milling to 2 to 5 um. Output: aligned fine powder.
- Sintered NdFeB magnet: Align in field and press; sinter 1000 to 1100 C; two-stage anneal 850 to 950 C and 400 to 600 C; machine; grain-boundary diffusion of Dy or Tb for coercivity; nickel or epoxy coat; magnetize. Output: sintered NdFeB segments or ring, grade N42SH to N45UH class for joint rotors.
- Precision reducer: Harmonic: flexspline, circular spline and wave generator machined from steel, teeth cut, heat treated, assembled with an output crossed-roller bearing; planetary: two-stage gear train; cycloidal: eccentric cam and pin ring. Output: reducer unit, 30:1 to 160:1 harmonic or 2-stage planetary.
- Position encoders: Magnetic absolute sensor IC (Hall or magnetoresistive) on a PCB facing a magnet ring; one on the motor shaft for commutation, one on the joint output for true angle. Output: two encoders per joint (dual encoder).
- AC servo motor: Motor laminations and other parts pressed, housing parts die cast, shafts and flanges turned on CNC lathes, the stator wound, the magnet rotor fitted, then a holding brake and an absolute encoder built onto the motor; assembled, tested and packed on robotized lines. Output: housed AC servo motor with holding brake and absolute encoder, sealed to IP67; six per arm (three larger on the main axes, three smaller on the wrist on the GP25).
- Axis drive: Each servo motor mounted on its motor base with an input gear into the speed reducer; the B and T axes driven through timing belts and the R and T axes through a gear stage; the R-axis unit and the wrist unit built as sub-assemblies; reducers and gears filled with grease and sealed with oil seals, O-rings and gaskets. Output: one driven axis; six per arm.
Controller
- Servo drive: A converter and an inverter unit built as separate replaceable units in the cabinet, with single-axis amplifiers for added axes; printed circuit boards, heat radiation fins and cooling fans assembled into enclosures and tested. Output: the drive for six motors: one converter and one inverter unit (YRC1000: converter CSRA-CV, inverter unit CSRA-SDA, single-axis amplifier CSRA-SDB).
- Robot controller: A CPU unit holding the CPU board and the robot interface board, with a servo control board, a safety circuit board and a general-purpose I/O board, fed by a control power supply unit. Output: robot controller electronics: six axes, three external axes possible (YRC1000); 6 or 7 controlled axes and 16 MB of memory (Kawasaki F60, F01, F02).
- Teach pendant: A handheld programming unit in reinforced plastics: a 5.7-inch colour touch LCD, axis and operation keys, a mode selector, an emergency stop button and a three-position enable switch, on a cable to the cabinet. Output: teach pendant, 0.730 kg, 152 x 299 x 53 mm, IP54 (YRC1000).
- Controller cabinet: A sheet-metal cabinet fitted with the servo drive, the controller boards, a power supply contactor unit and a heat exchanger with interior and exterior fans; wired and tested; one cable runs to the arm. Output: controller cabinet: 598 x 490 x 427 mm, 125 litres, 70 kg at most, IP54, three-phase 380 to 440 VAC (YRC1000); 8.3 kg open type (Kawasaki F60).
Frame and body
- Cable harness: Cables routed inside every joint (full joint hollow electrical routing). Output: harness through the joints.
- Arm castings: Gray or nodular iron poured into resin or green sand moulds with sand cores, then cleaned. Output: rough castings for robot makers; which arm parts, and for which maker, is not published.
- Machined arm parts: Arm parts machined in unmanned cells, washed, masked and painted. Output: machined and painted arm parts.
Robot
- Industrial arm assembly: Six axis drives built into the machined arm body and wired, then tested with the controller cabinet and the teach pendant: one six-axis industrial arm.