Set up in just a few minutes

Flender One can now be fully customized for any application.

The slogan “Unlimit your gearbox” has accompanied the development of the Flender One platform—which the manufacturer describes as revolutionary—since its market launch in 2022. Today, Flender is announcing the next major milestone: The platform now covers all key industrial gearbox applications, thereby solving a challenge in industrial mechanical engineering that was previously considered impossible—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 continues to set new standards in the digitalization of mechanical engineering.

With the latest addition of a universal housing concept, Flender One can now be configured for vertical, horizontal, and any other installation orientation. 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 undercarriages in material handling and logistics.

Combined with its existing coverage for pumps, paper machines, conveyor systems, overhead cranes, and dozens of other applications, Flender One now covers virtually every major industrial gear application.

What is remarkable about this achievement is not only the breadth of applications but also the fact that each gearbox is fully customized to the customer’s exact specifications while maintaining the delivery speed and cost-efficiency of a standard catalog product.

No Weeks Required

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.

“We’ve 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 isn’t quite right and waiting weeks for a custom solution. They tell us what they want to achieve, and within minutes our intelligent system designs the perfect solution and delivers complete 3D CAD models, technical drawings, and comprehensive documentation. A digital twin of the drive is immediately available for system development.”

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% of materials in conventional industrial gearboxes, while still ensuring optimal performance and reliability for the specific application.

Customized. Efficient. Smart.

Like every Flender One gearbox, the new version is also based on three core principles:

Customized: Each gearbox is tailor-made in a fully digital process exactly according to the customer’s specifications. With over one 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 mounting dimensions within its size class, allowing existing Flender industrial gearboxes to be retrofitted on a 1:1 basis without any modifications to the surrounding equipment.

Efficient: The optimized design of Flender One reduces power loss by up to 50% compared to previous models. Thanks to a 30% increase in 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% 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.

Smart: 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% and lowers maintenance costs by up to 40% through data-driven maintenance intervals. The AIQ solution includes a comprehensive cloud-based software suite for analysis, which is supplied with every gearbox.

Solving the Trilemma

The Flender One platform demonstrates how full 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 allows 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 mass production—something that was previously considered impossible in manufacturing. This approach creates a competitive advantage and serves as a blueprint for industrial transformation.”

“We have achieved true customization on a large scale and serve 100% of the most important industrial applications with custom-tailored gear units,” says Aleksandra Meissner, President of Industrial Gears at Flender. “But we’re not there yet. Flender One continues to evolve, and we look forward to the innovations to come.”

Available Now

The new Flender One models can now be ordered via the online configurator at flender.com/one. 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 contact form at flender.com/one to receive personalized advice.

In the future, Flender will expand the platform to include larger sizes and, in the long term, reach a significant milestone: fully customized industrial gear units manufactured with the efficiency of mass production.

Images: Flender