Creating Chinese high-end machine tools has become an urgent issue of the times.

       Although the output value of China's machine tools ranks first in the world, the localization rate of high-end machine tools is extremely low: in 2018, the localization rate of China's low-end CNC machine tools was about 82%, the localization rate of mid-range CNC machine tools was about 65%, and the localization rate of high-end CNC machine tools was only about 6%.

       Machine tools are inseparable from the national movement. Machines that make machines, ranging from small screws to large aircraft carriers, are inseparable from machine tools. As a lifeline industry related to the national economy, machine tools have also been included in the list of technologies blocked and suppressed by some developed countries.

       From being listed as a technical bottleneck to withdrawing from the list of key core technologies, it reflects that China's machine tools have made important breakthroughs in recent years.

       In the global market, the machine tool market has been occupied by Japan, Germany and the United States for a long time. In the market, my country's machine tool enterprises present a situation of high-end failure, middle-end competition, and low-end melee.

       At present, the research and development of high-end machine tools has weak basic technology and the situation that core functional components are controlled by others has not been fundamentally changed. In addition, technical product barriers represented by the "Wassenaar Agreement" severely restrict China's industrial transformation and upgrading and the development of high-end industries.

       At present, the supply of my country's machine tool industry is still dominated by low-end products. The supply capacity of low-end products is obviously excessive, while the supply of high-end products is obviously insufficient. According to the "Analysis of the Competition Pattern and Development Prospects of China's CNC Machine Tool Industry in 2019" issued by the Qianzhan Industry Research Institute, the localization rate of my country's low-end CNC machine tools was 82% in 2018, basically realizing localization; the localization rate of mid-range CNC machine tools was 65%. , at a relatively low level; the localization rate of high-end CNC machine tools is only 6%, mainly relying on imports.

       According to the analysis of interviewed experts, there are three main reasons why domestic machine tool products cannot squeeze into the high-end market:

       One is that the technology is backward, and the application is also backward. The second is that the initiative is not strong, and the initiative is also weak. The third is insufficient attention and insufficient support.

       In the view of the interviewed experts, to achieve a high-end breakthrough in my country's machine tool industry, a systematic battle is needed. In short, we must focus on these three key tasks:

       One is the return of basic research.

       The technology innovation center can connect with the basic technology of the university through the two-way connection between the needs of the enterprise. The demand of the enterprise continuously promotes the maturity of the basic technology. Maturity and marketization have helped the machine tool industry to build a strong technical reserve. As my country's machine tool industry moves towards high-end, it is necessary to lay a solid foundation for basic research. Therefore, basic research requires the full return of scientific research forces.

       The second is the card position of large and small enterprises.

       Domestic machine tool factories must focus on high-end breakthroughs. If we want to build a strong manufacturing country, we should list key enterprises, which will be under the management of the state and undertake national tasks. Small and medium-sized enterprises that make money from manufacturing should engage in manufacturing honestly, but industry leaders like Shenyang Machine Tool must always stand at the forefront of innovation to lead the industry.

       At the same time, it is necessary to give full play to the advantages of small and medium-sized enterprises, so that small and medium-sized enterprises can become an important supplement to a big country. In recent years, the rise of a group of private machine tool enterprises in the south has opened up a new path for the high-end development of my country's machine tool industry. These companies are in stark contrast to the large state-owned enterprises in the north. They focus on the development of a single model of machine tools, or even focus on design and integration, and use the advantages of the supply chain to outsource other businesses, forming a specific field or Link's strong competitiveness. Driven by market forces, private enterprises have opened up space for survival in the high-end machine tool market.

       The third is the replacement of core users.

       The replacement of core users will play a key role in the technological improvement and market development of domestic machine tools. For domestic high-end machine tool companies, the next step is to strengthen communication with core users, enter more and more enterprise users, establish positive interaction with enterprise users, and accelerate the process of localization of high-end machine tools.

       Ten Suggestions for the Development of China's Machine Tool Industry

       Article 1: Going to the external market

       From a global perspective, machine tool powers are mostly (mechanical/discrete) manufacturing powers. Because high-end manufacturing inevitably requires high-end machine tools, and the high-end manufacturing level also provides guarantee for the production of high-end parts.

       Therefore, the outlet of China's machine tools and the upgrading of China's manufacturing industry are strongly related, and the general trend of the manufacturing industry will directly affect the future of machine tools. The development strategy of machine tools should be bound to the general trend of the manufacturing industry, and the development strategy of the manufacturing industry should also take into account the industrial development of industrial equipment (tool industrial products) such as machine tools.

       First of all, it needs to be clear that machine tools are a kind of production tools that serve the manufacturing industry. The industrial upgrading of industrial equipment such as machine tools is promoted along with the upgrading of the overall manufacturing industry. Without the support of the local manufacturing industry, the machine tool industry cannot do anything alone. On the contrary, when there are enough domestic high-end projects, domestic machine tools will also accumulate enough experience and develop corresponding technologies.

       For example, my country is leading the world in the development of super-large and heavy-duty machine tools, because these companies can get orders for ships, submarines, nuclear power, etc., and they have built more similar equipment, and their experience has naturally improved. In the past ten years, similar large-scale projects have been rare in developed countries.

       However, we must also be clear-headed: the internal circulation project alone is not enough for most industrial equipment manufacturers to obtain technological upgrades, and there must be a large enough external market.

       The aircraft manufacturing of the United States is already unique in the world. Whether it is for civilian or military use, most aircraft manufacturing is in the United States. Even if the internal circulation market is huge enough, the United States has only cultivated a high-end special machine tool company, Electroimpact. Wire laying machines, automatic drilling and riveting machines and assembly lines have almost received all orders for the "internal circulation" of the US aircraft riveting process. Aircraft assembly is almost entirely based on riveting. The market for this piece of equipment is not small, and the profit margin is high enough. Even so, the company has only 600 people, 400 of whom are engineers. For European and American countries, a machine tool company with more than 500 employees is already quite large, but this number is completely on the scale of small and medium-sized enterprises in China. What's more, Electroimpact has also taken many orders in the UK, Europe and Middle East countries. It can be seen that relying on the internal circulation of orders in the system can only support a few leading enterprises.

       Because industrial equipment with a tool nature eats orders generated by manufacturing increments. If the capacity is not expanded, the factory does not need to purchase new machine tools. Therefore, excellent machine tool companies must vigorously develop overseas markets, so that the east is not bright and the west is bright. As long as it is not a global manufacturing depression, there will always be some overseas orders that allow companies to obtain relatively stable cash flow. This means that if you want to survive, you have to go abroad to participate in the "external circulation" and obtain enough market to support the upgrading of domestic machine tool technology. Obviously, for most machine tool companies, only by becoming an expert in a certain subdivided field can they dominate the market, use technical barriers to obtain higher profit margins, and avoid falling into price wars. But market segments are usually relatively small, so you need to search all over the world. However, some projects still face the risk of supply chain transfer even though the industry concentration in China is relatively high. Once the supply chain is transferred overseas, in order to avoid export restrictions, manufacturers have to place their production abroad.

       In fact, no matter how weak the industry is, there are often one or two good machine tool companies. Equipment companies that take the low-end route should set up factories in the market place as soon as possible, and use the power of capital to let local workers create wealth for the company.

       Due to the user stickiness of industrial equipment is usually greater. In most cases, it is not easy for manufacturers to change equipment suppliers, because once the new supplier fails, the impact on production will be very large. Therefore, they would rather choose some equipment with longer cooperation time and more stable performance, even if the equipment price is slightly more expensive, it is acceptable.

       When this manufacturer gradually develops into an industry leader and invests in setting up factories all over the world, his first choice of equipment must also be a local supplier with whom he has cooperated for a long time.

       For example, Korean machine tools were not popular at the beginning, and Chinese companies' acceptance of Korean machine tools was far less than that of Japanese and Taiwanese machines. But when South Korean auto and ship parts manufacturers transfer their production bases to China, all processes and equipment will be copied from the original factories, and business owners will still choose to import equipment from South Korea. Therefore, Korean machine tools have also become popular in China. For example, Doosan Machine Tools has taken over the field of steam turbine blade processing in recent years, and has the potential to replace Mazak and Mori Seiki.

       When low-end manufacturers who widely use domestic machine tools slowly enter the mid-to-high-end supplier club, domestic machine tools will naturally be recognized by the industry.

       Article 2: Actively expand the "optical machine" industry

       The so-called "optical machine" or "bare metal" is a relatively low value-added foundry. At first, it was the processing and assembly of the mechanical parts of the equipment, and later more and more servo components and electrical pipelines were added. The better development is the whole machine OEM. From "parts OEM" to "whole machine OEM", it is a technological upgrade for the enterprise microscopically. When more and more foundry companies form agglomeration effects, they will attract foreign industrial transfers on a large scale, and the macroscopic performance is industrial upgrading.

       In the global machine tool parts industry, my country (including Taiwan Province) has considerable advantages in optical machinery. The bed bodies of many standard machine tool factories in Europe and Japan are purchased from domestic manufacturers. Although the added value is relatively low, it can exercise the team to the greatest extent. It is a pity that this industry is dominated by private enterprises, good and bad are mixed, and there are many stragglers, so they can hardly get state subsidies, and they have to work hard on their own.

       Because it is a perfectly competitive market, it is very likely that among the "optical machine" manufacturers, there will be companies that have already made a big splash without making a name.

       The biggest threat at present is the import restriction of servo numerical control system. Because OEM production is to configure component brands according to the requirements of international customers, the suppliers of key components are mainly from Japan, Taiwan and Germany. Once the United States continues to strengthen the technological blockade, the machine tool OEM business will also shrink.

       Therefore, in the current general environment, such equipment OEM companies should go out, actively participate in the "external circulation", avoid trade sanctions, reduce production costs and seize emerging markets at the same time.

       Article 3: Vigorously develop machine tool structural parts

       Traditional machine tools are all casting beds, and casting is a hard job, which pollutes the environment and damages the body, and the profit is not high. At present, my country's bed castings occupy a considerable market share in the world. If the technology route is chosen correctly, then this traditional industry still has the opportunity to revitalize.

       High-precision machine tools must consider the influence of temperature changes on the bed structure, and the thermal expansion rate of stone is much slower than that of metal, so modern high-precision machine tools mostly use mineral casting bed. There are not many manufacturers of mineral casting structural parts in my country, so that some domestic high-precision machine tools have to purchase structural parts from Swiss companies (the actual production place is in Eastern Europe).

       This business has some technical content, but compared with complete machine production, the industrial chain is not complicated. Production equipment, raw materials, and mold design can all be solved locally. It is an industry that is easy to realize "internal circulation".

       Similar to mineral casting machine beds, composite material structural parts are also a frontier topic in the field of machine tools. Carbon fiber structure has high strength, light weight and low thermal expansion coefficient, which is very suitable for structural parts of large special machine tools. There are no other disadvantages other than the high price. Although the material performance of my country's composite material industry cannot be used in high-end fields such as aerospace, its quality is more than enough for ordinary civilian fields, and the cost of raw materials is far lower than that of imports.

       The manufacturing process of composite structural parts is also mainly manual, with auxiliary equipment and tools. This industry is very suitable for my country's labor market. Once it has a large scale, its competitiveness cannot be underestimated.

       At the same time, the automation upgrade of structural parts manufacturing is also an important path. It is possible to achieve automated mass production of standard structural parts of machine tools, which is precisely the strength of Chinese manufacturing (capital). Several large machine tool groups in Japan also realized the automated mass production of structural parts and the automated distribution of assembly components in the early years. Agile production (flexible manufacturing and assembly) can be realized on the basis of standardization of parts and serialization of products.

       However, my country's ultra-large extrusion molding equipment is leading the world. If the process and equipment performance are further improved, steel extrusion is not a big problem. This will also greatly reduce the production cost of equipment structural parts, shorten the production cycle, and greatly improve production flexibility.

       Regardless of whether it is cast or welded structural parts, or even extruded profiles, as long as the output is large enough, Chinese enterprises can gain production experience through the old method of "small profits but quick turnover", and continuously improve processes and equipment. The key link is to take the initiative.

       Rule 4: Don't Ignore Non-Critical Components

       Key components of machine tools such as CNC, servo, spindle, guide rail, and transmission mechanism are basically controlled by Europe, Japan, and Taiwan. The user stickiness of these parts is also very high, and new brands are not easily accepted. Therefore, it is very difficult to replace the position of traditional suppliers in the field of numerical control in a short time. However, in addition to challenging these key components, it is also a good choice to use non-critical functions as a breakthrough. This includes cooling systems, lubrication systems, waterproof and explosion-proof, etc.

       After the launch of Gree machine tools, although the performance indicators are good, and the benchmarking is also the top mainstream configuration, but because most of the parts are purchased, the cost of equipment and spare parts will not be cheap, and the market competitiveness is doubtful. However, because Gree has advantages in refrigeration systems, it is very suitable for the development of industrial-grade cooling cycle equipment (temperature control +/-0.1 ~ 0.2 ℃). Coupled with the linear motor and torque motor with high heat generation as the drive, the temperature control system of the whole machine will be a technical highlight. Therefore, it should be a good technical route for Gree machine tools to only do the cooling system.

       Similar technical configuration can refer to the Swiss Staulin robot, which is super fast, waterproof, explosion-proof and anti-magnetic, etc. The robot company also has two core businesses, one is linear drive and the other is waterproof I/O. It is these two core technologies that make the whole robot have distinctive technical characteristics and have irreplaceable technical advantages in specific fields.

       Article 5: Go for mergers and acquisitions, Europe is a resort

       The manufacture of industrial equipment such as machine tools is a "technology-intensive" industry. It is basically impossible for the bosses of such companies to use capital to exploit employees. feasible.

       For Chinese capital, mergers and acquisitions are not a problem, and post-investment integration is what deserves the most attention. China has acquired many German companies in the past, but the results were not satisfactory. In many cases, the problems that arise after the merger are mainly caused by the Chinese side, because the Chinese boss has always hoped to use the management model of Chinese employees to demand German small and medium-sized enterprises, but he himself does not understand this industry, let alone propose a reasonable strategic direction.

       But even if there are setbacks, it cannot shake the belief of going abroad to acquire machine tools. At present, it happens to be a good opportunity to acquire brands at low prices. Although the export of state-owned capital is severely restricted, if private enterprises go abroad and acquire European high-tech machine tool companies at low prices, there should be no major problems.

       Go out, go out, Europe is a resort.

       Article 6: Pay attention to the development of special planes

       "Small profits but quick turnover" is basically an ineffective strategy for the machine tool industry. Machine tool manufacturers should not hope to fight price wars, but should increase the added value of products through technological innovation. We don't have to think about how difficult technological innovation is. Some very practical innovations are just small improvements.

       For an extremely ordinary manual machine tool, the design of changing the tool holder into a three-grab vise is ingenious, and it is very convenient to change the tool and clamp the workpiece. And there are no too complicated innovations in technology, the chuck can be loosened by moving the handle left and right, and the three-grip vise can also be quickly replaced.

       This special plane strategy can be adopted for the improvement of almost all industrial equipment. Through the customized design of the special plane to meet the special technical needs of customers, the special plane will become standard configuration over time.

       In contrast, my country's machine tool industry has serious homogenization competition, and there is almost no difference in the functions of similar machine tools, so in the end we can only fight for prices. Of course, companies that buy domestic machine tools usually give priority to price, as long as the machine can do the work. It should be said that only a few machine tool manufacturers with high-quality customers can receive orders for special machine development, so in the final analysis, it still depends on the transformation and upgrading of Chinese manufacturers.

       Article 7: Start from the source, grasping the machine tool is not as good as grasping the craft, and grasping the craft is not as good as grasping the design

       Machine tools are the carrier of craftsmanship, craftsmanship is the soul of manufacturing, and design is the source of craftsmanship.

       Therefore, an excellent machine tool company must have rich process experience, and many innovative designs come from a deep understanding of process and part design.

       For example, in the more fashionable field of aluminum alloy deep processing, after aluminum profiles are processed into complex structural parts, they must be welded together to become larger aluminum alloy components. Before welding, the oil on the surface of the parts must be cleaned, which is a time-consuming and expensive process.

       A German machine tool company tried to find a way not to use lubricating oil and emulsion in the process of processing, but to cool the tool by dry cooling. Through a newly designed cooling bushing, the compressed air can be sprayed out through the small hole on the end face and aimed at the cutting edge, and the high-pressure air can form an air film between the cutter face and the cutting surface to lubricate. At the same time, the chips can be blown away, completely avoiding the generation of cutting tumors.

       This design is not particularly technically difficult, but it can greatly solve the process problem. The reason why such a technology can be developed depends on a deep understanding of the entire industrial process and final product.

       Article 8: Broaden your horizons and start again

       Although it has been more than 40 years since the reform and opening up, my country's manufacturing enterprises are not very familiar with the global technological development in their field, especially in industries with strong professionalism and scattered markets such as automation and industrial equipment.

       Taking industrial equipment as an example, the main channels for manufacturers and agents to obtain information are exhibitions. Foreign manufacturers that have the strength to go to overseas to participate in domestic exhibitions and display equipment are generally large-scale group companies. Even if foreign ordinary machine tool companies participate in exhibitions, they rarely display equipment, and small and medium-sized machine tool companies for special high-end manufacturing will basically only participate in local exhibitions. Professional exhibitions, never even advertised. Therefore, domestic companies basically only know part of the information about industry giants.

       However, the vast majority of industry giants do not cater to market segments with special needs that truly represent the technological frontier of manufacturing. In addition, many of the latest technologies are reflected in customized development projects, but these projects are not available on the market or on the website. Some equipment manufacturers do not even have a website in English, but they often have very special design experience, and only a very small number of users and a few suppliers in the industry know these companies.

       For example, a small company in Italy that produces multi-spindle lathes has good technology and high cost performance, but its website is only in Italian, and it hardly participates in exhibitions. However, there are only two foreign manufacturers of similar equipment active in the domestic market, both of which are large companies. This has caused many small companies to be obscured.

       Technology is everywhere, and for those who lack it, it is more often a lack of intelligence and vision. At the moment, the problem facing Chinese companies is that they have limited access to technology, high costs and rough means. But there are still many unknown small fork roads. This requires Chinese machine tool companies. If they want to make a difference in the international market, they need a strong technical intelligence network to know themselves and their enemies. Just looking at engineering papers and exhibitions is actually very limited.

      Article 9: Supporting benchmarks is not as good as cultivating industries

       Machine tools are tools in the manufacturing industry. The more developed the manufacturing industry, the more developed the related tool market will be. my country's bridge and pavement projects are booming, and construction machinery technology is developing rapidly. It is a simple and true truth to use it to advance and to use it to retreat.

       However, there are many market segments in developed countries in Europe and the United States that do not exist in my country, and there is no market for equipment and tools for the production of related parts, so this type of production equipment and technology will not get any development.

       For example, European and American countries believe that wood is a renewable resource, and the government encourages the construction of wooden houses. This has created an extremely complete huge market covering a series of related industries such as forestry, wood industry, forestry machinery, woodworking machinery, and log house component automation. In contrast, my country's wood structure construction market is almost negligible, so the level of related equipment manufacturers naturally lags behind the world's giants.

       In fact, a similar situation exists in many industries, such as RVs, yachts, sailboats, sports aircraft, hunting equipment, equestrian equipment, etc. Because the domestic market demand is not large, and the related industrial chain has not been transferred, the production of most raw materials and parts is completed in European and American countries. Therefore, our companies know very little about the production and testing equipment, processes, software, auxiliary tools, etc. involved in the manufacture of related parts.

       The special processing equipment developed by a large German propeller manufacturer can process 6 wooden propellers at the same time. Wooden propellers are mainly used in cheap sports aircraft. my country's airspace is not yet open to ordinary people, so this market is almost zero. Naturally, there are no companies to research this kind of equipment.

       To develop high-end machine tools, it is necessary to develop high-end manufacturing; to develop high-end manufacturing, it is necessary to cultivate a high-end market; to develop a high-end market, it is necessary to create greater high-end consumer demand for the middle class. All in all, as long as the social economy is in a virtuous circle, the industrial equipment industry will develop greatly sooner or later.

       At present, if the whole country develops a machine tool technology, it is basically no problem, because this is a single-target task. However, if a complete machine tool industry is to be cultivated, then the government's deep involvement will be counterproductive, because business and economy are typical multi-objective and multi-constraint super complex systematic tasks. Since there are countless participating companies in a perfectly competitive market, if the government wants to participate, it can only rely on the way of benchmarking, hoping to cultivate a few benchmarking flagship enterprise groups with international competitiveness. Without ecology, it is difficult to establish a benchmark flagship group.

       Therefore, the idea of trying to build a machine tool group aircraft carrier with the whole country is actually against the characteristics of the machine tool market.

       Of course, for an emerging industry or a strategic new application of a traditional industry, it is possible to accomplish great things by concentrating our efforts. The semiconductor industry in South Korea and Taiwan, China entered the market early, and the government put all their eggs in one basket to become competitive today. For the machine tool industry, composite materials and mixed process processing are currently a new battlefield worth investing in.

       For example, Italy's SCM Group has gradually achieved a market monopoly in the processing of new materials such as composite materials through a series of mergers and acquisitions.

       Article 10: Chinese design, European OEM

       Since Europe has a large number of senior technicians and engineers, and the cost of purchasing equipment parts in Europe is not high, why can't we adopt reverse thinking and let Europeans manufacture high-end machine tool brands in China, and then sell them to the Chinese? How about going to global manufacturing companies and providing them with services, consulting and technical training?

       From the actual market situation, since most of the parts need to be purchased, the price of domestic high-end five-axis products does not have much advantage compared with similar products in the Czech Republic and Italy. At present, the only place where domestic high-end machine tools can save costs is the cost of bed structural parts and labor. If European companies are allowed to OEM, the Chinese side can designate the purchase of parts, and all installation, commissioning and after-sales service after the acceptance of the European factory can be completed by Chinese technicians. In this way, the cost of the entire equipment and service can be effectively controlled, and at the same time the function and reliability of the machine tool are also guaranteed, and the competitiveness of the entire product is entirely possible to match the Japanese machine tool.

       When we evaluate the machine tool industry, we should not only see the equipment itself. Related software, services, and process consulting are larger sources of income. At present, it is difficult for China's machine tool industry to catch up with Europe, America, Japan and South Korea in terms of hardware as a whole. It is better to start with solutions and services and find another way. Therefore, Chinese machine tool companies can give priority to the development of related application services, such as developing process control software modules for specific industry applications.

       If high-end machine tools are compared to "treasure swords", then European machine tool companies are swordsmiths, Chinese manufacturing companies are knights who use swords, and Chinese machine tool companies can act as masters who write sword books and guide knights how to use swords. with a sword. While compiling sword manuals, Chinese machine tool companies will have a deeper understanding of "swords", and can ask swordsmiths to cast innovative and more powerful peerless swords according to the requirements of "swordsmanship".

       Note

       China's local machine tool manufacturing industry must go out and use global elements to create a sharp sword. The global landscape comes first. Moreover, machine tools are technology-intensive and labor-intensive industries. The market is extremely segmented, and there are unique hidden weapons everywhere. It is impossible for any machine tool factory to dominate the world. Most machine tool companies can only be regional or industry leaders, and rarely form highly concentrated giants in the global market like automobiles and aircraft. This means that the development of the machine tool industry has a unique set of market combination locks. If you want to open this lock, you must give enough patience and a lot of humble cultivation. The vigorous attention will make it overwhelmed.

Source: Knowledge Automation, "Financial and National Weekly", Xianji.com

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