In the humanoid robot industry, lubrication is not a "dispensable" detail but a crucial link related to performance, service life, and maintenance costs. Behind the seemingly flexible movements of a robot, there are actually dozens of precise and strict lubrication points.
In the core drive part of humanoid robots, harmonic and RV reducers bear high-frequency and long-term load impacts, and only high anti-wear lubricating grease (such as Baoxing BX-800 series) can maintain stable accuracy and service life.
However, the frameless torque motor bearings require lubricating grease with a low friction coefficient to make movements smoother and reduce energy consumption.
The gap of the fingertip joints is often only 0.5mm. Once the lubricating grease is thrown off, it will affect accuracy or even cause jamming. Therefore, thixotropic lubricating grease (thixotropic index > 3.5) is needed, which can firmly adhere during movement to ensure flexibility and stability.
Complex maintenance: A single robot has more than 50 lubrication points. Traditional manual maintenance is not only time-consuming but may also lead to performance degradation due to grease injection errors (> 0.01g). Although automatic grease injection equipment can solve this problem, the cost will increase by about 30%.
High-temperature failure: In long-term continuous movement tests, the joint temperature may exceed 80℃, and the oxidation life of ordinary lubricating grease will be shortened to less than 500 hours.
Dynamic load fluctuation: When a humanoid robot is walking, the joint torque change can reach more than 50%, requiring lubricating grease with an adaptive friction coefficient (such as BX-300 series containing ionic polymers) to ensure stable and smooth movements.
In response to the complex working conditions of humanoid robots, Baoxing has proposed a "two-pronged" solution: on the one hand, develop an automatic grease injection system to reduce maintenance costs and errors; on the other hand, apply lubricating grease with high anti-wear, low friction, and strong adaptability to dynamic loads (such as BX-800 series), which significantly extends the service life of equipment under the condition that the friction coefficient fluctuation is < 5%.
On the road of humanoid robots towards higher dexterity and durability, the upgrading of lubrication technology is becoming the core driving force of the next performance revolution.
