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Nie Pengju, a representative of the National People’s Congress, put forward during the two sessions: “Industrial robots are the most representative products in the field of intelligent manufacturing. It is recommended to increase support for the core parts and components of industrial robots, promote the development of the industry in the direction of mid-to-high end, and improve the R&D and manufacturing of domestic robots. level."
The reason for proposing such a proposal at the two sessions is based on the following facts: my country has become the world's largest consumer market for industrial robots for six consecutive years (currently accounting for about one-third of the global market), and is growing rapidly at a rate of more than 20%. However, even with such great vitality, compared with foreign countries, my country's industrial robot industry has bottlenecks such as weak independent innovation capabilities, lack of core talents and core technologies, and serious constraints on mid-to-high-end core components.
In what areas does my country's industrial robots still have broad room for improvement? How long is there to go?
Core components still need to be imported
At present, industrial robots are mainly used in welding, spraying, handling, assembly, cutting and other fields. Controller, servo system and precision reducer are the three core components with the most technical difficulty. Servo system can be described as the core "heart" of various robots and precision equipment.
Although the domestic robot market demand is increasing by leaps and bounds, the core components needed by robots have been monopolized by foreign brands. In the early stage of the development of the robotics industry, the market has been occupied by the "four major families" (abb, FANUC, kuka, and Yaskawa), one control system, and the other core components. In addition, domestic robots started relatively late, so they missed out on technical advantages and cost advantages.
Robot Industry Chain
However, as mentioned earlier, China is currently the world's largest consumer market. Relying on such market advantages, we should maintain confidence in the prospects of core components.
In the past two years, my country's technological development and the popularity of intelligent products have greatly increased, and the robot market has ushered in a small peak. Although affected by the epidemic in early 2020 and the overall market economy fluctuates, robots have performed prominently in this "war epidemic", especially service robots.
2016-2020 my country's robot market size
From the macro point of view of the domestic and foreign robotics industry, although domestic industrial robots are still some distance away from foreign countries, the gap will gradually narrow.
With the in-depth research and improvement of quality and technology, some domestic robots have also begun to go abroad and enter the international market. Compared with imported brands, low-priced domestic industrial robots can serve foreign domestic manufacturing companies with better technology and reliability, that is, occupying a higher cost-effective advantage. Therefore, the opportunities and space for domestic robots are still great.
In addition, backed by China's huge robot market, geographical factors have also become the advantage of domestic core components. No matter how late the start-up and development of foreign companies are, and insist on making the best quality products, and constantly polishing the product quality, the gap will definitely become smaller and smaller.
Price war restricts healthy development
Although robots that go abroad dominate part of the international market with a price advantage, in the domestic market, price wars between companies are indeed common.
At present, industrial robots are mainly used to replace simple repetitive labor. Robots that are too expensive will lose the meaning of replacement. Low-cost industrial robots are more conducive to promoting the implementation of Industry 4.0 and intelligent manufacturing solutions, but the development of intelligent manufacturing requires industrial robots to have good quality and advanced functions, so the investment cost will not be very low.
Take AGV robots as an example. In the past few years, domestic AGVs have developed extremely rapidly, and a large number of AGV manufacturers have emerged. Although the domestic AGV market is also expanding, no matter how big the cake is, the more people who eat the cake, the less everyone will get it.
In order to seize market share, some AGV companies have begun to fight a price war. In 14 years, an ordinary AGC product can sell for about 160,000. Today, with increasing inflation, some companies only sell less than 40,000. Domestic AGV prices are affected by walking mode, charging method, load, navigation method, etc., and the price ranges from hundreds of thousands to more than one million. But now some companies have called out to reduce the price of AGVs to less than 30,000, which makes it difficult for some smaller manufacturers to stand up in the market.
However, many buyers are limited by cost or don't know enough about AGV. It is likely that the low-priced party is chosen because of the cost. Inferior currency drives out good currency. Slowly, good things are gradually lowering prices in order to survive!
Appropriately low prices are conducive to industrialization and scale, but prices that are too low and too excessive will kill the industry. This is the truth proved by countless facts.
Therefore, what the current AGV industry needs is to restore business rationality, not just the AGV industry, but for the entire industry of industrial robots, those companies vying to sell low prices to attract customers, put more energy on product quality and research and development. Only by the above, our industrial robots can appear in the public's field of vision with a better image.
At present, the density of robots in China is relatively low
Robot density refers to the number of robots per 10,000 workers in the industry. This indicator is an important parameter reflecting the level of manufacturing in a country.
Although China's robot market is vast, in the context of a larger processing and manufacturing industry, my country's automation level actually still has a lot of room for improvement. In 2017, the density of China's industrial robots was 97 units per 10,000 people, exceeding the global average for the first time. In 2019, the Chinese Institute of Electronics released the "Report on the Development of China's Robot Industry (2019)". According to the "Report", according to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), China's robot density will exceed 130 units per 10,000 people in 2021, reaching the average level of developed countries.
Midea Group has begun to make efforts to increase the density of robots. In the past five years, it has invested more than 30 billion yuan in scientific research. It has established 28 R&D centers in 11 countries, including China, and has more than 10,000 global R&D personnel. The goal is Increase the density of robot usage to the level of developed countries with 625 robots per 10,000 people.
On the one hand, as the competition of industrial robots intensifies, the technology is becoming more mature, and the ease of use has increased, the efficiency has improved, the price of industrial robots has decreased, and the payback period of investment has been shortened; on the other hand, the demographic dividend has continued to decline and labor costs have increased. This factor provides more opportunities for the increase in the use density of industrial robots in China.
The development of system integrators is blocked
At present, more than 80% of domestic robot companies are robot system integration companies, not robot ontology companies.
When domestic industrial robots just started, a few companies that sold ontologies were profitable, but due to frequent outbreaks of stability problems, after-sales maintenance costs were very high, and integrators came into being. Many people say that it is very profitable to do a good job in robot integration, but this seems to be a bit general.
The barriers to system integration are relatively low, so bargaining power with upstream and downstream is weak. Although the gross profit level is not high, the market size is much larger than the ontology market. Such a huge market demand has not stimulated the vitality of system integrators. What is the problem?
On the one hand, system integration projects are almost all non-standardized, and each project is different, making it difficult to scale up. The annual output value of most manufacturers is not high, and "large enterprises" with revenues of more than 300 million yuan are mainly concentrated. In the four major areas of automotive technology. In other words, only this part of the leading integrator companies in the entire industry can really make money.
On the other hand, because robot integration is a secondary development product, you need to be familiar with downstream industry processes. If you focus on a certain field, you can usually get higher industry barriers. But also due to industry barriers, it is difficult to achieve cross-industry business expansion, and mergers and acquisitions are not feasible.
In addition, due to the need to advance funds, integrators usually have to consider the number and scale of simultaneous implementation of the project, so they cannot expand their business in time. Moreover, the development of system integrators requires extremely high talents, and the requirements of core sales, engineers, and installation and commissioning personnel are not low, all of which increase the difficulty of the development of integrators.
However, the current industrial robot industry itself is an industry that integrates system integration, advanced manufacturing and precision matching, so system integration will also be a necessary condition for the development of the entire industry. In comparison, breaking free from the limitations of core technologies and changing market size limitations are long-term and arduous tasks. Therefore, the most breakthrough in the industrial robot industry is in the field of system integration.
Industrial robot system integrators and body manufacturing are complementary and are the foundation of industrial robot automation applications. The development of robot bodies needs the promotion of system integrators, and system integrators also need the support of ontology manufacturers. my country's integrator companies should seize the opportunity to subdivide the industry, gradually modularize and functionalize, master core technologies, and complete professional technology accumulation. In addition, system integrators can also develop smart factories or digital factories, not only for hardware integration, but also for top-level architecture design and software integration.
The future of my country's industrial robots: a lot to do
In recent years, the government has implemented a series of preferential policies to vigorously promote the development of the robot industry, and industrial robots are continuously being widely used. At the same time, the transformation of the robot production line and the continuous localization have enabled domestic robots to obtain a lot of opportunities for practice and exploration from core technology, key component research and development to complete machine manufacturing.
Especially in the core technology of industrial robots, including core components such as reducers and motors, as the domestic robot market share and quality requirements increase, the core component product technology is constantly updated. The maturity of its technology is getting higher and higher, and the price is more transparent, which also provides a lot of opportunities for the development of domestic robots.
Although many people say that there are still differences between domestically produced parts and imported parts, from the current point of view, mainstream suppliers of core robot parts have become globalized, so the purchase price difference between domestic and foreign robot manufacturers is gradually approaching. The cost of domestic robots and imported robots on the same quality hardware is almost on the same level. Low cost and high quality are the best way for local robotics companies to break through.
To do a good job in quality management, starting from the selection of core components and raw materials, that is, entering a strict inspection process, and there must be detailed management rules in the assembly process. From a macro point of view, although domestic industrial robots are still some distance away from developed countries, the gap is gradually narrowing. With the improvement of quality and technology, some domestic robots can go out of the country and enter the international market, which is our recognized performance. Compared with imported brands, low-cost domestic industrial robots can serve manufacturing companies with better technology and greater reliability and occupy a higher cost-effective advantage. Therefore, the opportunities and space for domestic robots are still large, let us wait and see .