Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Machine Tool Co., Ltd., a Shiga-based part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) Group, has newly developed the "SE25FR Plus," a gear shaping machine dedicated to making high-precision small-module gears used in robots. The company has simultaneously developed a small-module cutting tool specifically for the new gear shaping machine. Full-fledged marketing of both new items will commence in March. By providing this dual support in high-precision gear cutting machines and cutting tools from a single source, MHI Machine Tool looks to respond to the need for reduction gears of increasingly higher precision in the expanding global robot market.

MHI Machine Tool launched its "FR Series" of high-precision gear cutting machines in August 2020. The new SE25FR Plus is a high-end model developed especially for shaping strain wave gears which require high precision. Outstanding rotation precision has been achieved through the adoption of ultra-high-precision bearings and direct-drive motors in the two core components: the work table and the cutter head. This provides gear cutting precision of ISO class 3, enabling cutting precision higher than the model SE25FR, which is of ISO class 6.

The small-module cutting tool to be launched together with the SE25FR Plus features a newly developed dedicated tool material and a special coating, "MightyShield μ" for micromachining. The tool material incorporates carbide particles offering improved toughness and wear resistance, while the new coating produces a uniform thin film below 2 micrometers (μm) thick that has no impact on tool shape error. The result is outstanding shaping even with difficult-to-cut materials, and the ability to achieve gear shapes down to the submicron level. Furthermore, MHI Machine Tool provides one-stop support in gear cutting machines and cutting tools, from the prototype development stage through mass production.