Nie Pengju, a National People’s Congress deputy, said during the two sessions that “industrial robots are the most representative products in the field of intelligent manufacturing.” It is suggested to increase support for the core parts industry of industrial robots, promote the development of the industry towards the high-end direction, and improve the level of domestic robot research and development and manufacturing.”

It is imperative to promote the development of the core parts industry of industrial robots and accelerate domestic substitution!

Why can’t the core parts be replaced by domestic production?

Robot industry chain
2713P-T12WD • The technology research and development investment of the three core components is high, the cycle is long, and the effect is slow, and the general enterprises can not become bigger and stronger

The upstream of the robot industry chain is the core parts, mainly including reducer, controller and servo system. The cost of core components accounts for a very high proportion, accounting for about 70% of the cost of robots, and the added value of midstream ontology and downstream system integrators is relatively low, accounting for about 25% and 15% respectively. The market with the highest added value has long been occupied by foreign manufacturers.
• Subject to the technical constraints of the three core components, domestic products are always subject to imported products

Many robot companies believe that domestic core parts are still in the upgrading stage, in order to better ensure the quality of the current product, will still choose imported parts. This phenomenon has also allowed domestic core parts to enter a vicious circle that can not be further improved, and has also led to the constant volatility of the current core parts market.

Relying on market advantages, core components have a good prospect

At this stage, affected by the development of science and technology in China and the greatly increased popularity of intelligent products, the robot market has ushered in a small peak of development. In 2016, China’s robot market size was only 36.82 billion yuan; Then it grew rapidly to 48.37 billion yuan in 2017, with a year-on-year growth rate of 37%. Although the growth rate of China’s robot market slowed down in 2018, it still remained above 10%, with a total sales of 53.9 billion yuan. It is expected that China’s robot market is expected to exceed 70 billion yuan in 2020.

2016-2020 China’s robot market size || Source: Frontier Industry Research Institute

Relying on China’s huge robot market, geographical advantage is undoubtedly the biggest advantage of domestic core parts enterprises. No matter how late the development of foreign enterprises, no matter how high the patent industry barriers, no matter how fast the product upgrading, insist on doing the best quality products, and constantly polish product quality, the gap will be smaller and smaller. In the future, the cooperation and pertinency of core parts enterprises and domestic robot enterprises will also be higher and higher, and the gap between catching up and foreign enterprises will be easier.

2713P-T12WD The technology gap is still there, but the key lies in the market size

For a long time, robot four has always been a hurdle in the hearts of robot industry practitioners, and it is also an insurmountable boundary for domestic core parts enterprises. Fourth, our products and domestic robots are compared with the difference between the sea and the stream, but in fact, this is more reflected in the market volume.

For example, in the reducer market, the “number one players” are mainly two Japanese companies – Hamenako and Nabotsk. The two leading enterprises occupy more than 70% of the market share of high-end reducer, which is in a very strong position. The four families rely on long-term cooperation, the price of the goods is half of the Chinese customers, and the price of Nabotsk’s reducer to Chinese customers is relatively higher than other customers.

Compared with the process, the relevant domestic technology, such as in the finishing, heat treatment process strength is extraordinary, so the core gap of parts is not large, but because it can reduce the transportation and assembly and other aspects of investment, so the relative advantage of domestic core parts is reflected in the price and market.

Although the gap and shortcomings between domestic and imported brands still exist, but not in the fundamental process gap, what is more needed is the support of a large market volume, so as to make up for the application software, functions, development direction and market reputation accumulated by foreign brands in the past time.

In recent years, the localization of the three core components in the upstream has achieved a great breakthrough, and many companies have independently produced RV reducer in batches, and the subsequent need is to polish and optimize the process to accelerate the domestic replacement process. In addition, servo motors and controllers have achieved large-scale applications and continue to accelerate technology catch-up.

In recent years, the domestic substitution rate of industrial robots in China has shown a steady rise, and China has initially possessed the strength of the whole industrial chain replacement. Only by steadily driving the three carriages with good cost, service and quality can we truly usher in a day when domestic core parts and imported parts are comparable!