The machine tool industry has great potential for cross-border operation in the era of industrial robots

At present, the manufacture of industrial robots is an area where major equipment manufacturers want to intervene. Whether it is a traditional machinery manufacturing company or an electric company, they all hope to get a share of the future industrial robots.

Not long ago, ABB’s Robotics Division held its third Asian partner seminar in Shanghai. It is said that this year's annual seminar is the largest one since the implementation of the ABB Robotics Partner Program. A total of 13 robots have been demonstrated live and 10 technical seminars have been organized.

Yaskawa Electric, a manufacturer of industrial robots, has used robots to solder circuit boards that are widely used in electronic devices in Shanghai; Omron, an electronic device manufacturer, has also installed a sensor system in its Shanghai factory. This system is detected on the production line. Workers can be notified of substandard products.

There are also many domestic machine tool manufacturing companies intending to exert great efforts in industrial robots. For example, Shenyang Machine Tool, Dalian Machine Tool, and many numerical control equipment manufacturers, Zhu Zhiyang, chairman of Youjia Group, made it clear that the industrial robot market must be occupied by Youjia. a piece of field.

In response to the investment boom in the industry, Luo Baihui, the secretary-general of the International Die & Metals and Plastics Industry Suppliers Association, said in an interview with the media that the industrial robot market has opened and the demand for the world robot market is about to erupt. China is potentially huge. The market demand has already begun to emerge, the investment prospect of the machine tool enterprise entering the robot field can be expected. It is hoped that this domestic manufacturing company can accelerate its pace so that competitors from the Nuggets can feel strong pressure and no longer use this opportunity.

1. If machine tool companies enter the robotics industry, are there any other reasons besides the employment shortage?

Industrial robots can replace the current more and more expensive labor force, while improving work efficiency and product quality. It is understood that Foxconn robots can undertake assembly tasks for precision parts of production lines, and can also replace manual work in poor working environments such as spraying, welding, and assembly, and can manufacture molds in conjunction with CNC mastering machines such as ultra-precision milling machines to increase production efficiency and replace Some non-skilled workers.

It can be said that the use of industrial robots can reduce the scrap rate and product cost, improve the utilization of machine tools, reduce the risk of defective parts caused by workers' misuse, and bring a series of benefits, such as reducing labor Dosage, reduce machine tool wear, speed up technological innovation, improve enterprise competitiveness, etc. The robot has the ability to perform various tasks, especially high-risk tasks, with an average failure period of more than 60,000 hours, which is more advanced than traditional automated processes.

The use of industrial robots has the following advantages: First, to improve working conditions. Gradually improve production efficiency; Second, stronger and controllable production capacity, accelerate product upgrading; Third, improve the processing capacity of parts and product quality; Fourth, eliminate boring and odorless work. Save labor: fifth. Provide a safer working environment, reduce the labor intensity of workers, and reduce labor risks. Sixth, improve the machine tool. Seventh, reduce the workload in the process and reduce the production time and inventory; eighth. Improve the competitiveness of enterprises.

In the face of global competition, manufacturers are using industrial robotics to help produce high-quality products at reasonable prices. A company that wants to gain one or more competitive advantages and realize robotic automated production will be a means to promote business development.

In developed countries, the complete set of equipment for industrial robotic automation production lines has become the mainstream of automation equipment and the future direction of development. Foreign auto industries, electronic and electrical industries, construction machinery and other industries have used industrial robots to automate production lines to ensure product quality and production efficiency. At present, the typical equipment is used for large-scale car body stamping automation system technology and complete sets of equipment, large-scale robot car body welding equipment automation technology and complete sets of equipment, electronic appliances and other robots flexible automated assembly and testing complete sets of technology and equipment, robot engine, variable speed Box assembly automation system technology complete sets of equipment and sheet metal laser welding equipment and so on. The use of these automated robotic industrial equipment sets will greatly promote the rapid development of its industry and enhance the manufacturing technology of its industry. More importantly, industrial robots will promote Chinese manufacturing to move toward machine automation, unmanned, higher value-added, and more innovative manufacturing.

With the rise of labor costs, changes in the work environment and diversified market competition, companies are facing a lot of pressure. Since the financial crisis, "Made in China", which is maintained by relying on traditional labor-intensive measures, has been difficult to sustain. According to Luo Baihui, secretary-general of the International Mould and Hardware and Plastics Industry Suppliers Association, China must become a “kingdom of manufacturing industry” and the success or failure of the industry lies in turning the “demographic dividend” into a “brain dividend”. The industrial robot industry is a rapidly growing emerging industry that will play an increasingly important role in future production and social development. The robotics industry will be a new large-scale high-tech industry that emerged after automobiles and computers.

Foxconn Technology Group, which has 1.2 million employees and the world's largest electronic product foundry, has also recently announced that in the next three years, Foxconn will increase the number of robots on its factory production line to 1 million units to replace workers and reduce operating costs. It can be seen that industrial robots, as an irreplaceable important equipment and means in the advanced equipment manufacturing industry, have become a new force in China's industrial automation technology and applications.

2. What is the advantage of machine tool companies in the field of robotics? What are the short boards?

The key application of industrial robots is motion control, and motion control is an important factor in ensuring the accuracy of machine tools. From this perspective, the correlation between machine tool manufacturing and robot manufacturing technology is very large. Therefore, the enthusiasm of machine tool companies to intervene in the manufacture of industrial robots has increased in recent years. Especially CNC system manufacturers, such as Huazhong CNC and Guangzhou CNC. Guangzhou CNC is committed to "producing robots that consumers can afford" on the premise of guaranteeing full-featured robots and stable and reliable performance. Guangzhou CNC has been involved in the research and development of industrial robots a few years ago and has made breakthrough progress: The company will first use dozens of robots for mass production in its own production workshop.

Not only the CNC system manufacturing enterprises, but also machine tool companies are very favored in the field of robots. For example, at the 6th China CNC Machine Tool Show held this year, Dalian Machine Tool Co., Ltd. demonstrated its offering of a machining center and twin spindles for China National Nuclear Corporation. CNC lathe and a robot consisting of flexible islands. It can be said that the flexible processing island produced by Dalian Machine Tool has guided the reform of the production organization mode and fully explained the profound implications of industrial automation and the major production modes of the future manufacturing industry.

Coincidentally, Guan Xiyou, chairman of Shenyang Machine Tool Group, which has the largest domestic sales of machine tools, also stated that the Shenyang Group has the experience in developing the Feiyang CNC system and is preparing to cut into the industrial robot manufacturing field to develop industrial robot products.

The large degree of technological relevance and the expected rapid growth in the future are two major factors that have prompted machine tool manufacturers to intervene in robot manufacturing. Luo Baihui, executive vice president and secretary-general of the International Mould, Hardware and Plastics Industry Suppliers Association, believes that the demand of the world's robot market is about to enter the eruption period, and China's potential huge market demand has already begun to emerge. Due to the unification of domestic and international standards, the core technology still has huge room for development, and it has a natural connection with the original industry and manufacturing system, and the product has a huge profit margin.

The robot manufacturing base is hardware, key components, software, system integration, and remote control. These five technologies. At present, there are many companies that make industrial robots. The advantage lies in whether they can provide a complete set of technical solutions.

Judging from the products launched by robots in the world in recent years, industrial robot technology is developing in the direction of smart machines and intelligent systems. Its development trend is mainly the modularization and reconfigurability of structures, the openness of control technologies, and PC-based technologies. Networking, digitalization and decentralization of servo drive technology, practical application of multi-sensor fusion technology, optimization of work environment design, flexibility of operations, and networking and intelligence of systems. This is the direction and development trend of domestic high-end machine tool product upgrades. Machine tool companies have mastered these technologies and it is inevitable to enter the field of robotics. However, it is necessary to comprehensively balance the advantages of their own companies in terms of technology, brand, capital, and market to position and develop robot projects.

Luo Baihui, secretary-general of the International Mould, Hardware and Plastics Industry Suppliers Association, said that China’s robotics industry is still weak and robotics research still has a long way to go. China has made breakthroughs in some key technologies, but it still lacks a breakthrough in the overall core technology. Especially in terms of automatic control, precision machining and materials, there are few robots with Chinese intellectual property rights, and many key components have not been able to produce by themselves. Or the performance is not high, these factors have begun to seriously affect the pace of making domestic robots bigger and stronger.

It is understood that visual orientation has become the main cause of the current development of domestic robots. In most workshops or assembly lines, the most widely used robots are those that do not have “photoelectric eyes.” Because of this, these robots can only be fixed in one place to do simple tasks.

For a long time, it is impossible to find a suitable method to deal with these complicated matters. The application of robots cannot always be expanded. However, this situation has finally changed. One of the most powerful technologies is the two-dimensional vision system.

Reference can be made to the robot developed by Japan's Fanuc CNC Systems. They use a vision system to assist the robot in picking up parts that are placed in bins separated into several layers by standard slide trays. This is a common method of transferring parts from one shop to another and even within the same shop. Without a vision system, manufacturers must use relatively expensive molded plastic dunnage or other methods to accurately pick up components inside the box. This type of molded plastic padding is relatively more expensive, of which light is 60,000 to 100,000 U.S. dollars for the design and manufacture of the mold.

Another benefit of using the vision system to the robot is to reduce the cost of the robot conveyor. Before using the vision system, many components must be positioned on a fixed pallet that is transported by the pallet conveyor. Even a simple pallet conveyor cost is not low, and the cost will increase as the conveyor transmission distance increases.

Now that the user's requirements for machine tool manufacturers are more than just providing machine tools, machine tool companies often have to provide users with a complete set of solutions or layouts for the entire production line. In Luo Baihui's view, the involvement of machine tool manufacturers in the production of industrial robots can be said to be a matter of course. In market development, it is only adding a new product variety in the mature market. In fact, robots are also very useful for the machine tool industry itself. For example, the traditional process of the machine tool industry—scraping—is the long-term dependence on skilled technicians to perform operations. This work is not only time-consuming but also physically demanding. If the visual problems of the robot are solved and applied universally, it may be more appropriate to serve this task. It seems that the development of robotics technology is not only the actual needs of machine tool users, but also has the function of back feeding for machine tool manufacturing.

At present, the total number of robots on the Chinese market is nearly 10,000 units, accounting for only 0.56% of the global total, of which the total domestic robot industry concentration is only 30%, and the rest are from Japan, the United States, Sweden, Germany, Italy, etc. 20 Introduced in multiple countries. The reason is that the self-owned brand is not enough, and the development of the self-owned brand and its automated equipment industry has become an urgent task.

The rapid development of Japan’s industrial robot industry has benefited from the government’s active support policy and strong financial support. The development of China's industrial robot industry is at a critical turning point. It also requires the government to increase support and further push forward. China's industrial robot industry will step onto a new stage and enter the stage of industrialization and scale development.

3. What is the demand for industrial robots in the mold industry? Do you think machine tool companies are engaged in the robotics industry and what are their market prospects?

According to Luo Baihui, secretary-general of the International Mould and Hardware and Plastics Industry Suppliers Association, since the robots entered the industry in the late 1960s, the actual installed robotics volume reached 6.5 million units by the end of 2007, and the number of new installations of industrial robots has increased by 3%. The cumulative installed capacity of 114,365 industrial robots has increased by 5% compared to 2006, reaching 995,000 units. In the metal mold processing industry, sales of robots increased by 6%, and machine tools accounted for 9%. China, Southeast Asia, India, and other countries and regions that have emerged as robotic emerging markets have seen significant growth.

China's industrial robot market has shown a booming industrial landscape. The rapid development of Chinese robotic investment has become Asia’s third largest robot market. In 2007, approximately 6,600 new installations were installed, an increase of approximately 14% compared to 2006. In China, the demand for robots in various fields, including automotive parts, is increasing. Luo Baihui said that in recent years, the annual production and sales of related products of industrial robots and their automated production lines in China have exceeded 1 billion yuan. The "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" is a key turning point in the development of China's industrial robot industry. The market demand also has a blowout-type development. The demand is growing at a rate of 15% to 20% each year. Industrial robots are currently mainly used in the automotive manufacturing industry in China and are costly. In the future, industrial robots used for loading and unloading machine tools will become a trend. In the manufacture of blanks (punching, die-casting, forging, etc.), machining, welding, heat treatment, surface coating, loading and unloading, assembly, inspection and stacking of warehouses, robots will become a standard equipment and are widely used.

With the development of China's manufacturing industry, especially the development of the automobile and auto parts manufacturing industry, which is the main application field of industrial robots, the assembly volume of industrial robots will increase rapidly. In addition, the field of industrial robots is gradually extending to the electronic information industry and construction, mining, etc. It is expected that the average growth rate of industrial robots in the future is expected to reach about 25%. In addition, due to the rapid growth of automated warehouses at the level of 40 to 60 seats per year, the annual increase in mobile robots for logistics and transportation will also be no less than 20%. It is estimated that by 2025, the entire robot market will reach 50 billion.

Luo Baihui believes that from the perspective of the development of the manufacturing industry, China is in the process of industrialization and its production methods are bound to undergo changes in mechanization, automation, intelligence, and information. Industrial manufactured goods will also experience quantity, quality, and flexibility at low cost. In the development stage, the current machine tool and mold manufacturing industry generally require upgrading of technology and equipment to enhance competitiveness and increase economic efficiency. Therefore, there is a lot of room for development in China's robotics industry.

4. Please give suggestions to the machine tool companies in the field of robots.

The level of industrial robot technology is the core indicator of a country's manufacturing modernization. Luo Baihui said that with the domestic and foreign same industry and other competitors making major breakthroughs in the field of robotics, while the social recognition of the concept of environmental protection is also increasing, improving the level of technology and innovation, and the use of environmentally friendly eco-technology will be the production The important manifestation of business competitiveness. If the machine tool companies cannot continue to innovate, the future competitiveness will be affected and there will be risks in technological innovation capabilities. In the field of industrial robots, machine tool companies should make full use of the capital platform, increase scientific research investment, continue independent innovation, increase core competitiveness, and lay a solid technical foundation for the sustainable development of the company.

At present, the market competition of industrial robots is becoming more and more fierce. China's manufacturing industry faces enormous challenges in keeping with international standards and participating in the international division of labor. Speeding up the research, development and production of industrial robot technology is the main way we have seized this historical opportunity. Judging from the competitive situation, the major competitors of machine tool companies have their own flagship products and business areas, and there is a certain pattern of market segmentation and dislocation development. However, with the development of China’s manufacturing industry, domestic companies have completed sets of industrial robots and automation. As the demand for equipment continues to increase, in the face of the advantages of domestic and foreign companies in the high-end product market, the market competition for domestic robots has become increasingly fierce. In particular, the competition of new technology and new concept robots is greatly affected by R&D investment and R&D timeliness. It is also constrained to a certain extent by the existing market structure and there is a certain market risk. Machine tool companies are developing high-end equipment industry, expanding their scale of operations, and nurturing new profits and business growth points. They need to consolidate their main business while maintaining their ability to continue innovation and achieve leap-forward development of new industries and new businesses. Keeping pace with the country's "12th Five-Year" industrial strategic transformation, we must grasp the rhythm of the country's industrial structure adjustment, seek the market with technology, brand, and quality, use technology innovation as the driving force, and use talent as the basis to expand industrial robots and automated equipment. In terms of scale, it still adheres to the development of the domestic market and foreign market, and seizes the market opportunities brought by the economic recovery, expands new application areas, and explores new product markets. Ensure the company's leading position in the domestic industrial robots and automated equipment industry. Build domestic first-rate, internationally renowned brands.

Machine tool companies must strive to improve the quality of operations and management, adhere to technological progress and technological innovation, reduce operating costs; strengthen internal management, improve risk control, improve profitability in an all-round way, and achieve the goal of a stable and rapid development of the company. At the same time, it strengthens its capabilities in product planning, product realization, competitive strategy and service quality, and enhances its ability to respond quickly, respond quickly, and comprehensively resolve solutions.

Urgent need to solve the key links:

(1) Strengthen the R&D strength of enterprises and the intensity of scientific research investment, invest in advanced scientific research equipment, promote the close connection between scientific research and production, and promote the transformation of research results of intelligent robots and automation engineering technologies;

(2) Self-developed robotic products with high precision parameters, high sensitivity, high reliability, high safety, and easy to use, changes in the state of dependence on imports, enhancement of independent innovation capabilities, mastery of core technologies such as automation control;

(3) In terms of target selection, on the one hand, consideration should be given to the development of the international robot market and technology; on the other hand, the needs of national economic construction and social development must be taken into account, especially the technological transformation of state-owned enterprises, agriculture, energy, transportation and other industries. Infrastructure and urbanization needs.