China Hongyuan Bearing Occupy China Humanoid Robot Sector with 90%+ Market Share in Core Component Bearings

"Unitree" danced Yangko at the Spring Festival Gala, "Zhongqing" danced street dance flexibly, and "Tiangong" won the marathon championship... Entering 2025, humanoid robots competed to show off their skills, becoming an industry trend and a hot word in technology overnight.

Did you know? More than 90% of the bearings in the "joints" of humanoid robots in my country come from a private enterprise in Luoyang.

Machine tools run at high speed, and bearings are rolled off the production line one after another... Recently, at Luoyang Hongyuan Bearing Technology Co., Ltd. in Changdai Town, Mengjin District, rows of high-precision humanoid robot bearings are ready to go. In the future, they will be used in the products of well-known humanoid robot industry chain companies such as Green Harmonic, Shanghai Zhiyuan, Zhongda Lide, Unitree, UBTECH, Zhongqing, and Tiangong.

"Whether it is a harmonic reducer cross roller bearing, a RV reducer tapered roller bearing, or a planetary reducer thin-wall cross roller bearing, our products have a domestic market share of over 90% in the bearing varieties of key parts of humanoid robots." Lv Ruifang, head of the technical research and development department of Hongyuan Bearing, said that in the first quarter of this year, the output value of the company's humanoid robot bearings increased by more than 200% year-on-year, which can be described as explosive growth.

Why does the humanoid robot industry, which is changing with each passing day, favor "Luoyang Bearings"? This has to start from 5 years ago.

In fact, Hongyuan Bearing has a deep accumulation in the field of industrial robots. The harmonic reducer bearings, cross roller bearings and other industrial robot bearings produced by the company have broken the passive situation of my country's heavy reliance on imported products and occupied more than 90% of the domestic market.

Similar to the principle of industrial robots, different types of bearings are used in each "joint" of humanoid robots. However, unlike industrial robots, special bearings for humanoid robots require more sensitivity, more energy-saving and more durable, which requires them to be made smaller, lighter, more delicate and more reliable.

"In 2020, we received the first inquiry for humanoid robot bearings from East China, with only 50 sets and an order value of tens of thousands of yuan." Recalling the initial stage of the humanoid robot bearing business, Wu Qiaoling, head of Hongyuan Bearing, still remembers it vividly.

On the one hand, if a new bearing is developed for dozens of sets of order products, the initial cost is high and the comprehensive benefits are low; on the other hand, it is uncertain whether the subsequent orders can be long-term and large-scale.

Hongyuan Bearing chose to "spend a lot of money". "To see the benefits, we should not only look at the present, but also look at the future trends." Speaking of the original choice, Wu Qiaoling said firmly, "Whether it is a landmark product or a new application scenario, the high growth prospects of the humanoid robot industry have been initially revealed."

Seizing the industry's outlet requires not only forward-looking vision, but also a bold leap after understanding the trend. In two years, Hongyuan Bearing has invested more than 35 million yuan in research and development, of which more than 25 million yuan has been invested in the research and development of humanoid robot bearings, accounting for 6% of total revenue. The company has successively overcome core process problems such as precision control, thin-wall rigidity optimization, and structural optimization, and developed 150 models of humanoid robot bearing products in 12 series in 4 categories, which will be put on the market in batches for the first time in 2022.

Today, the minimum rotation error of products such as special bearings for harmonic reducers developed by Hongyuan Bearing is only 1 micron, which is equivalent to 1/60 of the diameter of a human hair, which makes it easy for robots to perform fine movements such as embroidery and picking up objects. In addition, the company's products also have the characteristics of long life and high rigidity, which can easily make humanoid robots perform high-intensity movements such as vacating, flipping, and long-distance running. In general, the overall technology and performance of the company's products have reached domestic leading and international advanced levels, and have been equipped with products of international giants such as Nidec.

Five years ago, was Hongyuan Bearing's choice to invest heavily in humanoid robots wrong? A set of data has given the answer: the company's orders for humanoid robot bearings in the first half of this year reached 120 million yuan; driven by orders for humanoid robots, the company's output value is expected to be more than 350 million yuan this year, an increase of more than 70% year-on-year.

With industry giants such as Tesla making their plans, this year is regarded by the industry as the first year of mass production of humanoid robots, and the market size is expanding at an unprecedented rate. According to estimates, by 2035, the market size of humanoid robots in my country is expected to increase to 300 billion yuan, and the compound growth rate from 2025 to 2035 can reach 53.15%.

Cranes are dancing, transport vehicles are shuttling... At present, standing at the outlet of the industry, Hongyuan Bearing has invested in a new project with an annual output of 200,000 sets of high-precision intelligent bearings.

"The wind does not wait for anyone, and the first starter gets the first chance." Wu Qiaoling said that the project is expected to be put into production this month, which can double the production capacity of humanoid robots and other bearings for enterprises, and provide strong support for our city to seize the new industrial track and cultivate the high-end bearing advantage industry chain.