News Center
NSK Develops New Ball-Screw-Driven Electric Hydraulic Booster, Plans FY2027 Market Launch
Gasgoo has learned that on October 16, NSK Ltd. announced the development of a new electric hydraulic booster. The product uses a ball screw drive to generate hydraulic pressure, aiming to solve the difficulty conventional hydraulic generation devices face in balancing energy savings with high-speed operation. It is scheduled to be brought to market in fiscal 2027.
In terms of technical principle, the electric hydraulic booster converts the rotary motion of a motor into linear motion via a ball screw, which then pressurises the hydraulic oil to generate hydraulic pressure. Unlike conventional hydraulic pumps that must run continuously, the device generates pressure only when needed. Taking the tool release mechanism on a machine tool spindle as an example, power consumption can be reduced by approximately 89%, and a single machine tool is expected to cut carbon dioxide emissions by roughly 815 kg per year.
In terms of operating efficiency, thanks to the excellent response speed of the ball screw drive, the device is able to supply hydraulic pressure quickly. Again in the case of a machine tool tool-release mechanism, the time required to generate hydraulic pressure can be shortened from about one second with conventional pneumatic-hydraulic devices to about 0.2 seconds, effectively reducing tool change times. In addition, the product is designed to be more compact than conventional hydraulic pumps, helping to save equipment space and making it suitable for scenarios where installation space is limited or piping is difficult to route.
NSK plans to exhibit the product at the 33rd Japan International Machine Tool Fair (JIMTOF), to be held at Tokyo International Exhibition Center from October 26 to 31, 2026. According to NSK's research, as of August 2026, this is the first time among the world's major hydraulic equipment manufacturers that a ball screw has been used to generate hydraulic pressure. In the future, the product will be mainly applied in fields such as machine tools, hydraulic presses and industrial robots, helping the manufacturing industry save energy and improve production efficiency.
