Industrial robots, what is the difference between domestic imported?

In recent years, with the gradual decline of the demographic dividend the backdrop of technological progress, the demand for automation upgrades replacing humans with machines among Chinese manufacturing companies has been rising year by year.

Although the demand for domestic robots has grown by leaps bounds, the domestic market has been monopolized by foreign brands. It is undeniable that Chinese local robot companies started late are still catching up with international high-end levels in terms of product functions, precision stability.

In the early days, the Chinese industrial robot market was dominated by the "Big Four" (ABB, FANUC, KUKA, Yaskawa). There were two key factors: the control system the core components. For example, harmonic reducers were basically dominated by Japanese brands for a long time, the price they offered to domestic manufacturers was several times higher than that of the "Big Four". The software system was similar. Therefore, domestic robots had neither technical advantages nor cost advantages in the initial stage.

1. The gap is narrowing with the advancement of core components

In recent years, domestic policies have vigorously promoted the widespread use of industrial robots. The localization of production line transformation has enabled domestic robots to gain a lot of practice exploration opportunities the research development of core technologies key components to the manufacturing of complete machines, some leading enterprises have emerged in various fields of the industrial chain.

In terms of the core technology of industrial robots , the hardware includes core components such as reducers motors. As the market share quality requirements of domestic robots increase, the technology of core components is constantly iterating. Its technology is becoming more mature its price is more transparent, which provides a lot of opportunities for the development of domestic robots.

It is undeniable that there are still differences between domestic parts imported parts, but at present, this is a key factor that hinders the quality of domestic robots catching up. Because the mainstream suppliers of core robot parts have been globalized, the purchasing price difference between domestic foreign robot manufacturers is gradually approaching. The cost of domestic imported robots on hardware of the same quality is almost at the same level.

The more important part is the robot coding controller  software algorithm, that is, the brain of the industrial robot - the control system. The core key is the software algorithm. At present, there are only a few robot manufacturers in China that have achieved independent research development of high-performance control systems. Ten years ago, ABB demonstrated its leading technology of robot motion control system through a video. The industrial robot moved quickly between several neatly arranged cans, the gap between the cans the robot's end tool was only 1mm.

What is shocking is that the robot moves at high speed precision without hitting the tank wall. For a long time, the mid-to-high-end market has been monopolized by imported brands, domestic robot practitioners have also felt the dilemma of core technology being restricted by people.

2. Low cost high quality, local enterprises break through

In the early days of industrial robots, the automotive manufacturing industry was the most widely used field, so high-load was the traditional mainstream model of industrial robots. In the field of high-load robots, China has grown up with established high-quality robot manufacturers represented by Siasun.

China is a major industrial producer, with a broad industrial layout in the fields of automobile manufacturing, 3C electronics, metal processing, plastics, food, footwear clothing. In recent years, new domestic robot brands have emerged, many companies have used "low prices" as an advantage to seize the market in the early stages of development. Many domestic companies even sacrifice huge profits quality for this.

As the transformation upgrading of manufacturing enterprises continues to deepen, a large number of shutdown problems caused by the quality of automation equipment problems with yield consistency caused by equipment stability issues have begun to surface, domestic user companies' understanding of automation has begun to shift a cost-oriented to an efficiency-oriented one.

Without the first-mover advantage production test of decades of imported brands, how can domestic robots break through in terms of stability, reliability other qualities? The answer is to do a good job in quality management, starting the selection of core components raw materials, that is, entering a strict testing system process, more detailed management rules in the assembly process.

Now domestic robot pioneers have also made in-depth layouts in this regard. For example, Luoshi Robot has a professional quality control laboratory. Every component motors, reducers to cables must pass multi-dimensional extreme tolerance tests before they can be used. Just one cable needs to undergo 10 million extreme bends. The production process is even more strict with the torque standard of each screw, there are hundreds of such screws.

a macro perspective, there is still a gap between domestic industrial robots developed countries, but the gap will gradually narrow. With the in-depth research improvement of quality technology, some domestic robots have also begun to go abroad enter the international market. Compared with imported brands, low-priced domestic industrial robots can serve domestic foreign manufacturing companies with better technology reliability, which means they have a higher cost-effectiveness advantage, so there are still great opportunities space for domestic robots.

3. Import domestic production, the key is to solve the problem

Under the general trend of global intelligent manufacturing transformation, industrial robots will inevitably become an indispensable key role. The ultimate goal of large-scale machine replacement in factories is to reduce labor costs. At the same time, it can be combined with new-generation information technology use big data analysis, predictive maintenance other methods to improve the overall production efficiency of the factory to a higher level.

At present, industrial robots mainly replace simple repetitive labor on the production line. Too expensive robots will lose their significance. Low-cost industrial robots are more conducive to promoting the implementation of Industry 4.0 intelligent manufacturing solutions. The intelligent manufacturing model has put forward new requirements for flexibility, digitization intelligence. Industrial robots must also have good quality advanced functions. Therefore, some local high-quality robot products have great advantages.

In addition, China has a huge industrial cluster, the production technology of each industry is different, the requirements of factories enterprises for robots are also different. In some new fields, domestic imported robots are at the same starting line. How to choose an industrial robot depends on what problems the user wants to solve whether it meets the expected return on investment. Therefore, whether it is an imported domestic brand, it also depends on whether it can provide efficient solutions suitable for subdivided industries.

4. How can industrial robots stand out in the post-epidemic era?

After the outbreak of the pneumonia, the awareness of manufacturing enterprises on automated production is expected to be greatly improved. However, cost recovery is still one of the factors that enterprises must consider when investing in automated production.

In recent years, as the domestic industrial robot industry chain has gradually matured, the cost of industrial robots has also gradually decreased. According to data released by the International Federation of Industrial Robots (IFR), domestic industrial robot sales reached US$5.12 billion in 2017, a year-on-year increase of 30%; 2018 to 2019, the upstream downstream supply chains of the industrial robot industry further matured, the hardware cost of domestic industrial robot products declined. At present, industrial robot companies with strong product capabilities in the industry have compressed the investment recovery period of their products to within 2 to 1.5 years.

The industrial robot industry chain is long involves many companies. In this industry chain, the fundamental driving force behind replacing humans with machines is its economic efficiency compared to manual labor, localization of upstream core components cost reduction are one of the means to achieve this.