The NTN Group is spearheading a number of ambitious innovation projects, especially geared towards new forms of mobility, green business, the industry of the future, digital technologies and services.
These strategic directions are leading to new products that incorporate ever more intelligence, signal processing and connectivity capabilities.
In alignment with the Group's CSR policy, NTN innovation is actively working to design products that are increasingly compact, lightweight, reliable and durable.
New forms of mobility
NTN Europe has always been and will always be strongly involved in the mobility markets, where it has developed considerable expertise.
The rate of change continues to accelerate as these markets are swiftly embracing increasingly electrified and connected vehicles and driver-assistance systems, which in turn heralds new research and innovation opportunities for NTN Europe:
- Electric vehicles
- Developing new-generation bearings tailored to electric vehicles featuring low-torque components
- Improving expertise in the failure modes of electric vehicle bearings
- Improving the CO2 footprint throughout the vehicle's lifecycle
- Integrating low-torque components and materials with a longer service life
- Using recycled and bio-based materials, such as developing eco-friendly suspension thrust bearings
- Pioneering hybrid bearings incorporating ceramic rolling elements to improve durability and reduce weight
Soft mobility
- developing suitable bearings
- developing speed, position and torque sensors
- Creating a range of services for electric bikes, including autonomous charge points
Driver-assistance systems
- with a range of solutions for wheels and electric motors
- LIDAR components
Green business
NTN has always developed its products as part of a strategy driven by eco-design and eco-friendly principles, and the Group is determined to go even further in contributing to a cleaner and more sustainable future.
We take action throughout our products' lifecycle with the dual aim of constantly reducing their environmental footprint while guaranteeing their durability and performance.
Eco-friendly products
Reducing our products' environmental footprint is a challenge, which involves:
- Developing innovative sealing solutions
- Creating new lubricants
- Producing steels from low-carbon sources
- Developing new materials or more efficient heat treatment processes
- Reducing bearing torque through innovative designs,
- Pioneering new measurement solutions and the associated resources
Eco-friendly applications
NTN innovation is constantly working to set new standards in terms of endurance, reliability and energy performance, which involves:
- Acquiring greater insights into the failure modes of our products and developing new codes and calculations, or in-service simulations
- Reducing power dissipation by lowering the mass and torque of our products
- Producing green energy associated with the new forms of mobility
Eco-friendly production and processes
NTN innovation is helping develop a new industry whose hallmarks are net zero, efficiency and waste reduction. To achieve this aim, NTN is exploring new tools and processes:
- Additive manufacturing reduces the number of assemblies and avoids waste
- Powder metallurgy and sintering increase alloy quality, improve raw material costs and limit waste
- Using greener operating fluids is helping shape a new industrial ecology model
Industry of the future
To meet these eco-responsibility and performance challenges, the industry of tomorrow needs to:
- Implement assisted, preventive and predictive maintenance
- Process simulation techniques contributing to digital twins
- Efficient manufacturing processes, such as powder metallurgy, additive manufacturing, robotics and cobotics
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