NewsFeb 01, 2021
Yaskawa Electric Corporation (Head Office: Kitakyushu City, Fukuoka Prefecture; Representative Director and President: Hiroshi Ogasawara) has gained extensive trust from customers globally since shipping the world’s first transistor inverter in 1974. We are pleased to announce that the cumulative shipments of AC Drives reached 30 million units in January 2021.
Based on our strength in motor control, we have developed a number of products incorporating innovative drive technologies, such as vector control, digital control, IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor) drive, and ASIPM (Application Specific Intelligent Power Module) drive. The results of these developments have led to widespread adoption as the de facto standard (global standard) in the industry, supporting social infrastructure such as elevators and air conditioners along with global economic growth, and contributing significantly to improving production efficiency, quality, as well as saving energy and reducing CO₂ emissions. In addition, drive technology, such as 3-level control and matrix converters, which only our company has commercialized as general-purpose AC drives, has been highly evaluated for solving customer’s problems. In April 2016, we began sales of the “GA 700, CR 700 and GA 500” in which state-of-the-art motor control functions were implemented as components and added software value such as alerts for abnormal conditions that do not stop the machinery and equipment of our customers.
At production sites, smart factories are being promoted to improve production efficiency and quality and ensure traceability.
To this end, we are promoting a solution concept that incorporates digital data management in addition to automation, called i3-Mechatronics. Yaskawa’s AC drives not only improve performance by increasing speed and response, but also monitor machine operation at high speed through motor control, and from this data, we aim to provide digital data solutions that realize high production efficiency, high quality and continuous production.
In 2019, we merged the AC drive business with the PM motor business, which is highly compatible with AC drives. By combining the motor technology and control technology, we will strive to strengthen our industry-leading solutions for miniaturization and energy conservation.
Furthermore, we will respond to the diverse needs of the market by establishing 5 global production bases (Japan, the United States, China, Europe and India) and 4 global development bases (Japan, the United States, China, and Europe), as well as by establishing sales bases in each region and strengthening our service system.