“Unlimit your gearbox”—this slogan has accompanied the development of the revolutionary Flender One platform since its market launch in 2022. Now Flender has announced the next major milestone: The platform is now set to cover all major industrial gearbox applications and, according to the company, overcome a challenge previously considered impossible in industrial mechanical engineering: the combination of complete customization with the speed and cost-effectiveness of series production. This is made possible by Flender’s proven end-to-end digital process chain, which, according to the manufacturer, continues to set new standards in the digitalization of mechanical engineering.

Advancement Opens Up Entirely New Applications

With the latest addition of a universal housing concept, Flender One can now be configured for vertical, horizontal, and any other installation position. This advancement opens up entirely new applications that could not previously be served by the platform, including agitators and mixers in the chemical, food, and pharmaceutical industries; water screw pumps and aerators in water and wastewater treatment; classifiers; and drive systems in material handling and logistics.

Covers virtually every major industrial gear requirement

Combined with existing coverage for pumps, paper machines, conveyor systems, overhead cranes, and dozens of other applications, Flender One now covers virtually every major industrial gear requirement. What is remarkable about this achievement is not only the breadth of applications, but also that each gear unit is fully customized to the exact customer specifications while maintaining the delivery speed and cost-efficiency of a standard catalog product.

Designed in minutes, not weeks

The key to Flender One’s success is the online configurator at flender.com/one. The system fundamentally changes the way customers specify industrial gear units. Conventional selection processes require extensive technical knowledge and weeks of development time. Flender One customers simply enter three parameters: application, power requirement, and speed.

“System designs the perfect solution in just a few minutes”

“We have overcome the traditional trade-off between customization and speed,” explains Dr. Jan Reimann, Flender One Project Manager. “Customers no longer have to choose between a standard catalog product that doesn’t quite fit and waiting weeks for a custom solution. They tell us what they want to achieve, and our intelligent system designs the perfect solution within minutes and delivers complete 3D CAD models, technical drawings, and comprehensive documentation. A digital twin of the drive is immediately available for system development.”

Digital engineer with more than 125 years of application expertise

The configurator is powered by a digital engineer with more than 125 years of Flender application expertise and automatically and precisely sizes each gearbox for its intended use. This approach eliminates the chronic oversizing that, according to industry data, leads to a waste of up to 50 percent of materials in conventional industrial gearboxes, while still ensuring optimal performance and reliability for the respective application.

Customized, Efficient, Smart

Like every Flender One gearbox, the new version is also based on the three cornerstones of “customization,” “efficiency,” and “smartness.” Customization means: Each gearbox is tailored precisely to the customer’s specifications in a fully digital process. With over a million possible configurations across the entire platform, customers get exactly what they need for their specific application. Every Flender One gearbox has identical footprint and connection dimensions within its size class, allowing existing Flender industrial gearboxes to be retrofitted 1:1 without modifications to the surrounding equipment.

Efficient means: The optimized design of Flender One reduces power loss by up to 50 percent compared to previous models. Thanks to a 30 percent higher thermal capacity, external cooling systems are often no longer required. Online configuration and the automated manufacturing process reduce project planning time by up to 25 percent and ensure faster delivery and lower operating costs throughout the gearbox’s entire lifecycle. Thanks to precise sizing, customers pay only for the power they actually need, rather than for the safety margins included in standard catalog products.

And finally, “smart” means that every Flender One gearbox comes equipped with Flender AIQ gearbox intelligence as standard. The integrated sensor technology monitors critical parameters in real time, enabling predictive maintenance that reduces unplanned downtime by up to 70 percent and lowers maintenance costs by up to 40 percent through data-driven maintenance intervals. The AIQ solution includes a comprehensive cloud-based software suite for analysis, which is supplied with every gear unit.

Solving the Industrial Trilemma

The Flender One platform demonstrates how complete digitalization can transform manufacturing. The underlying FIRE platform (Flender Intelligent Rule Engine) enables seamless end-to-end digitalization, from customer configuration through automated manufacturing to operational monitoring. This digital framework is designed to enable Flender to offer what was previously impossible: universal application coverage, complete customization, and efficiency comparable to mass production. “Flender One proves that digital transformation enables entirely new business models,” explains Andreas Evertz, CEO of Flender. “We offer highly customized products with the speed and cost efficiency of series production—something that was previously considered impossible in manufacturing. This approach creates a competitive advantage and serves as a blueprint for industrial transformation.” And Aleksandra Meissner, President of Industrial Gears at Flender, adds: “We have achieved true customization on a large scale and serve 100 percent of the most important industrial applications with custom-tailored gear units. But we haven’t reached our goal yet. Flender One continues to evolve, and we look forward to the innovations to come.”

Immediate Availability and Ordering

The new Flender One variants can be ordered immediately via the online configurator. Registered customers can create configurations and submit inquiries directly through the platform. All customers are welcome to contact their Flender sales representative or use the online contact form to receive personalized advice. In the future, Flender will expand the platform to include larger sizes and, in the long term, reach a special milestone: fully customized industrial gear units manufactured with the efficiency of series production.

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