In recent years, the industrial robot market in China has grown rapidly, but the situation in which core technologies and parts are subject to foreign control has not changed much. With the breakthrough of key components such as domestic speed reducers, and the gradual maturity of the market, the future development of localization of industrial robots is expected to achieve greater progress.
In order to further strengthen the driving force for innovation and realize the transition from a “manufacturing power” to a “manufacturing powerhouse,” China has begun to vigorously implement the “Made in China 2025” program and promote the automation and informatization upgrade around the development of smart manufacturing. Among them, industrial robots, as the main industries in the field of smart manufacturing, have always been the focus of national attention.
China's industrial robot industry development speed
In recent years, under the dual influence of policies and markets, China's industrial robot market has continued to grow in size, and its output has also expanded simultaneously. The warming trend is positive. According to data released by the Bureau of Statistics, the output of industrial robots in China reached 130,000 units in 2017, an increase of 81% year-on-year.
From the perspective of the possession of industrial robots, China currently ranks first in the world, surpassing the developed countries such as the United States, Japan, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. Industry insiders expect that according to the overall development of industrial robots, more than 34% of industrial robots will enter the Chinese market in 2018.
In 2013, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the “Guidance Opinion on Promoting the Development of Industrial Robot Industry” in order to realize the rapid development of the robot industry. Therefore, the surge in the production and possession of industrial robots in China is closely related to the government’s increased support and the release of policy dividends. At the same time, domestic related companies continue to increase R&D investment, and foreign companies are striving to strengthen their capital layout, which is also an important factor affecting the rapid development of China's industrial robot market.
At present, China's industrial robots have become more and more widely used. They have expanded from the more mature automotive and electronics industries to medical, food, construction, environmental protection, and other manufacturing industries. In the future, they are expected to maintain a stable trend of expansion and expand the scope of applications. The market scale has further improved.
The main challenge of the robot's core components
Domestic robot companies such as Xinsong and Eft are making significant progress in the area of industrial robots, gradually breaking the "rule" of traditional robotic countries such as Japan and Europe and the United States. However, even if the domestic robot market has a good growth situation, domestic robot companies are also growing, but this does not mean that China has won a complete victory in the field of industrial robots competition.
In fact, there are still quite a few gaps between foreign giants in the core technology and core components of industrial robots in China. In addition, there are still gaps in the development of the industrial chain and the market share in the high-end market.
As far as core components are concerned, China’s industrial robot companies have been sourcing from foreign companies, such as purchasing various types of reducers from Japan and purchasing machine vision equipment and grippers from Germany. In order to get rid of the low end of the high-end industry, break the monopoly of foreign technology, and truly achieve the rise of the domestic industrial robot industry, we must achieve continuous breakthroughs in this part of the core components.
Of course, it is not easy to overcome the obstacles of "core parts and components". It also requires the joint efforts of the government, industry and enterprises. Only by giving full play to the advantages of all parties and fully mobilizing all types of existing resources can we make new progress in core technologies to create core parts and components with independent intellectual property rights and high quality, and control the huge industrial robot market in China. Hands.
Domestic RA reducer made a breakthrough
Nowadays, industrial robots appear to be more flexible and able to perform many practical tasks in a stable and precise manner, and to guarantee the quality of the process. This depends on control systems such as speed reducers. In the popular sense, the reducer is quite a joint of industrial robots. Only with good speed reducer products, industrial robots can play a greater role.
In the past, for a long time, our country's industrial robots used RV reducers mainly imported from Japan, which greatly restricted the development of domestic robotics companies in China and the manufacturing of domestic robots. This was very detrimental to the sustainable development of domestic robots, and to domestic Robot companies compete for development dominance and strengthen market competitiveness.
It is reported that the RV reducer consists of a cycloid pin and a planetary carrier, and has many advantages such as small size, strong impact resistance, large torque, high positioning accuracy, low vibration, large reduction ratio, etc. It has been widely used in industrial robots, Machine tools, medical testing equipment, satellite receiving systems and other fields.
Not long ago, after years of efforts, China Shipbuilding 707 successfully developed a RV reducer, which can be applied to industrial robots and wind power equipment such as welding and painting. It is expected that large-scale commercial applications will be realized during the year. The breakthrough in the field of RV reducers will provide strong support for the complete localization of industrial robots in China.
In the future, as domestic reducers mature in technology and market, they will be able to take the lead in opening the low-end industrial robot market and attack the high-end industrial robot market by virtue of their superior performance/price ratio. By 2020, the domestic reducer market is expected to exceed 6.6 billion yuan, and domestic reducers will have bright prospects.