Research & Development

DevelopmentBasic Approach and Policy

The Nabtesco Group’s Basic Approach to Research and Development

The Nabtesco Group has been providing high-precision and high-efficiency products by evolving its unique motion control technology. Going forward, we will strive for a steady shift to “new motion control” to achieve further growth. To this end, we will enhance our sensing and IoT technologies, and make more effective use of AI technology to broaden our lineup of systems and solutions that diagnose failures of products and their surrounding environments for preventive maintenance. We will thereby deliver high value-added products and boost our maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) business. Moreover, by constantly introducing advanced technologies for the future, we will develop world-class components and systems to create new products and businesses that will enrich our society.

R&D expenses and ratios of R&D expenses to sales

R&D expenses and ratios of R&D expenses to sales

System

R&D System

For each R&D theme, Nabtesco conducts R&D in two stages. In the first stage, it focuses on “research into elements” to develop new technologies for the future. In the second stage, it works to turn the R&D results achieved in the first stage into a business.
Moreover, we divide the development stage for each theme into substages and seek expert advice from outside the department on the development details and business feasibility, thereby reducing the lead time to the launch of a new business.

Furthermore, we are promoting open innovation beyond the internal framework as our basic approach to R&D. Nabtesco is conducting a range of R&D activities, including its traditional collaboration with Japanese universities and joint research with overseas universities and research institutes, cooperation with startups through its corporate venture capital (CVC) initiatives, and M&A projects. In addition, through the Nabtesco R&D Center located in the Kyoto Research Park in Kyoto, which is home to various universities and research institutes, we are pushing ahead with open innovation. Based on our expertise in each of the fields in which we specialize, we aim to develop element technologies for the future of 10 years from now and expedite the introduction of new technologies not only through in-house development activities but also through collaboration with other companies and universities. Through these measures, we will adopt a wider range of technologies, speed up our development activities and promote the development of global human resources who have expertise in technologies, thereby fostering the creation of new products and businesses.

Measures to Develop New Products and Services

Measures to Develop New Products and Services

R&D activities toward Innovation

Measures

Create Innovations

Promoting Comprehensive Measures to Create Innovations

Nabtesco has been achieving further growth by accumulating technologies and know-how. We have made this achievement with each of our business departments supporting customers in developing their products based on our motion control technology for stopping and moving with precision.

Recently, in response to the diversification and sophistication of customer needs, we have been focusing more on developing and proposing electrified products and systems with a view to increasing our growth opportunities, in addition to supplying single components and services for which we have competitive advantages. Further, we are now expected to supply products and services that provide a preventive function in response to the advancement of digitization, IoT and AI, in addition to the “moving it, stopping it" functions.

To meet these needs, the Nabtesco Group is accelerating measures to provide customers with a broader variety of value under the leadership of the Technology and R&D Division, and is fostering comprehensive measures to create innovations. Furthermore, Nabtesco set its long-term vision for 2030, “Leaders in Innovation for the Future” and is fostering activities to create new value. In addition to helping customers solve their existing problems, we will also identify issues that have not yet been recognized by society at large or our customers and establish and share new standards that can be used around the world to solve such issues.

Major R&D Fields

Effective use of OVALO GmbH (to accelerate the manufacture of systems and electrified products)

In March 2017, Nabtesco acquired OVALO GmbH of Germany. The purpose of the acquisition is to make use of the company’s ability to develop integrated products of motor and control unit, thereby accelerating the transformation of Nabtesco’s products into systems and electrified products, which are indispensable to meeting the increasingly diversified and sophisticated needs of customers.

Also, adcos GmbH, which is a subsidiary of OVALO and is now one of Nabtesco’s consolidated subsidiaries, has the model-based development technology that provides the basis for the development of mechatronic products. We will make effective use of this know-how to dramatically increase our development efficiency and quality.

We will utilize the advanced technologies owned by OVALO and adcos across business fields to generate maximum synergy within the Group to create new businesses.

Effective Use of Corporate Venture Capital (CVC)

Through corporate venture capital (CVC), the Nabtesco Group has been identifying the technologies and product domains to be addressed for the Group to develop new products and create new businesses for its long-term growth.

写真

Nabtesco Technology Ventures AG , which is based in Switzerland, has formed a strategic partnership for CVC operations with Emerald Technology Ventures and is searching for co-creation partners by making use of the company’s expertise.

We established the CVC Promotion Department to further enhance and speed up the CVC initiative. The department is strategically searching for co-creation partners based on the technologies and intellectual properties owned by the Group and is playing a role in the management of the CVC funded projects for the speedy creation of new businesses.

Organizational structure for CVC

Organizational structure for CVC

CVC Utilization Process

CVC Utilization Process
(Regarding the business domains to be invested)

NTV promotes joint development and other co-creation with start-up firms that have the following technologies and will continuously invest in them:

  • Motion control and peripheral technologies (including artificial intelligence and IoT) or, domains related to "disruptive innovation"
    Example) Robotics, brakes, construction machinery, medical/welfare equipment, 3D printers, motors, sensors, and others
  • Domains related to production technologies
    Example) Machining and surface processing technologies, model base development and others
(Example of investment)

Investment in R.K. Deep Sea Technologies Ltd.

R.K. Deep Sea Technologies is a leading maritime technology developer in terms of vessel performance monitoring and optimization. Nabtesco has been conducting joint research with this company since investing in it, and in July 2023, we acquired 100% of its shares, making it a consolidated subsidiary of Nabtesco. By combining Deep Sea Technologies’s world-leading AI technology with Nabtesco’s remote control system for marine vessel engines, we are pushing ahead with digital transformation (DX) for future ship operations and fostering development activities for autonomous navigation and the reduction of CO2 emissions and environmental impacts in the maritime shipping industry.

Investing in SPACE ONE CO., LTD.

Through the capital and business partnership with SPACE ONE, which engages in launching small rockets to send artificial satellites to space, we will develop and offer products for the space industry based on our abundant expertise and technologies developed in the aircraft equipment business within and outside Japan. In the future we will build a supply chain to deliver products to companies in the space industry including SPACE ONE, thereby contributing to the sustainable development of the industry.