Timken Expands Precision Motion-Control Platform and Capabilities with CGI Inc.

Automation is reshaping the way the world operates, impacting everything from how life-saving surgeries are performed to how essential products like semiconductors are manufactured.

CGI, a market leader in precision gear solutions, recently joined the portfolio of brands advancing Timken’s motion control capabilities to meet the needs of an increasingly automated future. Founded in 1967, CGI is well-regarded for its highly engineered solutions that support innovation in highly regulated industries like medicine and aerospace.

Growing Industrial Motion Leadership
With the acquisitions of Cone Drive in 2018 and SPINEA in 2022, Timken added precision gear solutions for automation, now the company’s second-largest end market, to its portfolio. Their collective expertise in harmonic, cycloidal and worm gear solutions has driven Timken growth in end markets such as factory robotics, automated vehicles and satellite communication.

The addition of CGI’s extensive expertise in engineering, prototyping, in-house testing, and precision manufacturing complement existing capabilities at Cone Drive and SPINEA — and expand the Timken precision gear portfolio with miniaturized solutions measuring 0.39 in. (10 mm) to 8 in. (203.2 mm).

Smaller sizes enable precision gearing in applications like surgical robots, aerospace laser positioning devices and processing equipment that grows silicon crystals used in semiconductor manufacturing. While CGI’s products are on the smaller-sized end of the portfolio, they are designed and manufactured with the same customer-centric approach engineers apply across Timken’s entire engineered bearing and industrial motion offering.

“Our culture and value proposition are very similar to Timken, Cone Drive and SPINEA,” said Tim Pirie, CGI’s chief technology officer. “Our innovation is driven by customers and rooted in our deep knowledge of gear technology that manages high torque in applications where precision is crucial. World-class problem solving and collaboration is in our DNA, which is why customers have come to view us as an extension of their own R&D and engineering teams.”

“Our innovation is driven by customers and rooted in our deep knowledge of gear technology that manages high torque in applications where precision is crucial.”

Tim Pirie
Chief Technology Officer, CGI Inc.

Legacy of “Firsts”
Nearing 60 years of influence in gear solutions, CGI was originally founded as California Gear and Instrument serving two primary markets initially: aerospace and medical devices. One of the company’s first customers was NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, supporting gear-driven systems in the first generation of spacecraft. Like Timken, CGI solutions enabled the Apollo missions that landed the first humans on the moon. Early CGI’s high-precision, high-torque gearing translated well to the fledgling medical device market, which in the 1970s was developing the first tools for orthopedic surgery.

“It’s considered routine now, but working with bone at that time was challenging and made procedures like knee replacements tough to do,” Pirie said. “We helped the industry design and manufacture the first orthopedic medical devices and surgical tools. Now, our work with surgical robotics designers is similar because it is in its infancy, and they aren’t bound by convention. They are creating something completely new, and that’s really conducive to innovation.”

Today, CGI partners with a world-leading innovator of medical robots that enable minimally invasive surgery for faster patient recovery and easier biopsies that help detect lung cancer earlier.

Surgeons have conducted more than 14 million surgical procedures since 2022 using this customer’s robots, including the world’s first remote surgery conducted across 5,000 miles, from Rome to Beijing. Every one of those procedures was powered by CGI gear solutions.

Beyond surgery, CGI technologies support automation in next-generation lab test equipment. Some of its mightiest miniature gearboxes also help artificial hearts drive circulation and extend life for people living with advanced heart failure.

“There’s a high level of regulation and rigor around all of it,” Pirie added. “Our customers have a high level of confidence and faith in our technical capabilities to involve us in these innovations, which speaks volumes about our leadership in motion control.”

Timken industrial motion innovation improves efficiency and sustainability in all areas of automation, including industrial robotics. Cone Drive precision gear solutions equip robots and cobots that streamline manufacturing, while Rollon linear motion solutions enable sophisticated robots to “walk”.   

Last Updated: 2024/12/9

Published: 2024/11/27