2009 Green Excellence Award presented to Sumitomo's Hyponic Drive

The 2009 Frost & Sullivan Green Excellence through Product Value of the Year Award for Gear Drives and Gear Motors Market is presented to Sumitomo Drive Technologies for its Hyponic Gear Technology. This award is in recognition of the Hyponic Gear Technology’s unique gear design that transmits torque efficiently and delivers the industry leading energy efficiency (80 to 90 percent) across its entire span of gear ratios (30:1 to 1,440:1).
The Hyponic Gear Technology’s innovative design completely seals the gears and uses “eco-friendly” food-grade grease lubricants, which eliminates the need for further lubrication, guarantees “Zero maintenance” and ensures that the Hyponic Gear can be mounted in any direction. The Hyponic Gears are constructed with steel material, which makes it more wear-resistant, reduces friction and minimizes energy wastage. This enables customers to experience significant savings on maintenance and operational costs. By demonstrating enhanced efficiency, greater reliability and reduced life cycle costs, Sumitomo’s Hyponic Gear Technology presents clear value to its customers and helps them better meet their sustainability goals.
End-users of gear boxes and gear motors are increasingly concerned about the energy savings and look for cost effective approaches to improve their operational excellence. Sumitomo, through its critical understanding of the customer’s energy efficiency requirements, has pioneered consistent innovation and value additions to the Hyponic Gear Technology. Sumitomo Drive Technologies’ incorporates green excellence as an integral part in its end-to-end manufacturing process. Unlike other competing gear types that lose efficiency at higher ratios, Sumitomo’s patented Hyponic Gear Technology demonstrates superior energy efficiency (80 to 90 percent) across all gear ratios (30:1 to 1440:1).
End-users of Sumitomo’s Hyponic Gear Drives vouch for its capability to deliver enhanced operational excellence and faster return on investment. Despite the economic downturn, the customers’ confidence and rapid adoption of the product has resulted in growth rates in excess of 7 percent annually, compared to 1 to 3 percent growth rates typically experienced in the North American gear motors and gear drives market.
Rising energy costs have significantly impacted the customers’ business and the need for energy optimization to remain highly competitive is forcing the customers to seek for products that can maximize their profitability and minimize total cost of ownership. Sumitomo’s Hyponic Gears have an uniquely designed tooth geometry made of resilient steel material that significantly minimizes the wear losses, while maximizing mean time to failure (MTTF). Augmented with the products durability, Sumitomo’s Hyponic Gears are completely enclosed and use food-grade “eco-friendly” lubrication. This type of lubrication has an added advantage of zero leakage over other traditional oil lubrications for applications or processes where contamination cannot be admitted, such as food handling, medical and pharmaceutical manufacturing or chem