Machinery / Industrial Parts & Tools

The tricks of the United States to suppress China are being performed all the time. As early as the end of April 2021, foreign media revealed that the United States would require Switzerland to no longer export high-precision machine tools to China. This is after obstructing the Dutch sales of lithography machines to Chinese companies, the United States once again used imperialist power politics to disrupt the order of the global market economy.

For China, Switzerland is one of the main importing countries and regions of machine tools. From January to November 2020, China imported a total of 305 CNC machine tools from Switzerland. Although only 3.94% of the total imports, Swiss machine tools are widely used in key areas such as my country's aerospace and military manufacturing, and are closely related to national security.

Compared with international giants, my country's machine tool industry started late and has a big gap in core technology. Take high-end CNC systems as an example. Over 90% of domestic high-end CNC systems need to rely on imports. This gap in core technology is directly reflected in the import and export prices of machine tools. It is reported that since 2014, the average price of imported machine tools in my country has been around US$250,000, equivalent to RMB 1.6 million, while the price of Swiss machine tools is higher. In 2020, the average price of high-end machine tools exported from Switzerland to China has exceeded 51 Million US dollars, equivalent to 3.3 million yuan. Someone has calculated that if machine tools are sold for two pounds, the price per kilogram of Swiss machine tools is 2.8 times that of Japanese machine tools, 3.2 times that of American machine tools, and 10 times that of machine tools exported from China.

In addition to the high cost, many Swiss machine tools have advanced technology and excellent quality, and there are almost no substitutes in the world.

For example, in the field of aerospace, people are concerned about the equipment's ability to process titanium alloys and high-temperature alloys, the rigidity of the machine tool, and the machining accuracy. A five-axis high-performance milling process by Swiss GF AgieCharmilles Machine Tool Company The center can complete all the processing of titanium alloy impellers in only 18 hours. In addition, its special expert system for EDM machine tools and wire cutting machine tools can optimize roughing and finishing strategies, not only does not produce processed workpieces The metamorphic layer, material or microstructure will not change, and it can be widely used in the processing of aviation tree grooves to provide safety guarantee for aviation.

Baomei, another Swiss machine tool company, has been focusing on providing solutions for the processing of small, precise and complex parts. The main users include Shenyang Liming Engine Company, Xi'an Flight Automatic Control Research Institute, Hongdu Aviation Industry Group, Shanghai Eighth Academy of Aerospace Micro Motors and other large companies. These users often have special requirements for processing, such as one-time clamping. Baomei's milling and turning compound center can not only be equipped with up to 3 electric spindles and 7 CNC axes, but also can complete all the processes of complex parts in one clamping.

Let's look at some specific data: in terms of compactness and high performance, it has an acceleration of 1.1G; a feed rate of 50 m/min; a linear motor, the spindle speed reaches 30,000 rpm within 1.5 seconds; the machining spindle starts from 0 degrees It only takes 0.35 seconds to swing to 90 degrees; tool magazine with 60 tool positions, HSK40 tool holder. It has an absolute advantage in some typical complex parts and difficult-to-machine parts fields such as medical equipment, dentistry, aerospace, auto parts, connectors and jewelry industries.

It is conceivable that once the Swiss machine tool really "cuts its supply", the crisis of "stuck neck" will be on the line.

1/Swiss machine tools, why can't we learn?

"Swiss Machine Tool" is well-known all over the world. As one of the German-speaking countries, the Swiss follow the rigorous and conscientious "craftsman spirit" of the German-speaking countries, and have a perseverance in craftsmanship. The secrets of its precision manufacturing are all hidden in the products. There are some machine tool companies whose machines, from molds to key parts, are all made by hand, and no one in the world can imitate them. This also makes Swiss machine tools an invisible champion that will never fail regardless of the economic crisis or the European debt crisis.

There are not many companies engaged in the production of machine tools in Switzerland, with only more than two dozen. The more well-known brands include GF AgieCharmilles, Mikron, and Swiss Seiki. However, for a long time, Swiss machine tool exports have always ranked among the top five in the world. Per capita machine tool exports have consistently ranked first in the world for nearly 30 years. More than 150 countries in the world are long-term users of Swiss machine tools. Especially precision machine tools are favored by all countries. Even Germany, which occupies a pivotal position in the field of well-known machine tools, has to import machine tools from Switzerland. Data show that in 2018, Germany imported 1.162 billion euros of machine tool equipment from Switzerland, an increase of 13% compared to 2017, and it is still showing an upward trend.

So, what are the unique characteristics of the Swiss machine tool industry that are worthy of the trust of global customers?

1) Small but precise and specialized. Swiss machine tool companies are usually small in size, with employees ranging from 100 to 300; the company has few product models, mass-produces one or two hundred machine tools per year; the price is in the tens of millions to billions of Swiss francs; basic focus In two or three specific or subdivided industries, we can deeply understand the needs and pain points of customers, continuously iterate our products, and provide customers with high-end products and excellent services.

2) Core technology. In Switzerland, no matter how small a machine tool company is, it firmly holds the core technology for the special needs of the industry in its own hands, which provides a strong guarantee for the iteration and innovation of the company's products. Moreover, often a R&D team composed of 20-30 people can master all aspects of design and manufacturing from spindles, turntables, automation systems to machine tools.

3) Inheritance and innovation. Swiss machine tool companies have both century-old companies and "rising stars" that have been established for 30 to 40 years. Most business owners will experience at least two to three generations. Whether they are inheriting their father’s business or professional managers, they are basically full of enthusiasm and pride in precision equipment. They will uphold the concept of high-end and precision, and continue to iterate products, both based on experience and process innovation (such as Tornos), and There are innovations based on scientific progress (such as Veliming).

4) Industrial talents and education. The most important support of Swiss industry is its education system. Starting from the 10th grade (16 years old), more than 80% of Swiss students choose to enter vocational and technical schools for 3-4 years of "dual system" study. Only less than 20% of students will choose to go to university. Switzerland, Germany and Austria are the three countries with the best implementation of dual education. The Swiss universities for training engineers have two Federal Institutes of Technology (ETH and EPFL, with the right to grant bachelor to doctorate degrees), and eight universities of applied sciences (with the right to grant bachelor to master's degrees). The hands-on skills training of these Swiss universities is quite solid.

On the other hand, my country’s machine tool companies often regard scale and sales as their main goals at the strategic level, hoping to occupy the market through impulse and low-price strategies, and then consider improving quality ("big first, then strong" strategy), and the government often adopts Financial, project and land policies to encourage enterprises to increase their scale. When machine tool companies increased their sales scale, many of them entered the real estate industry where money came faster. Not only did they squeeze out some potential private companies in this field, they also ended up in failure and bankruptcy due to excessive expansion (such as Shenyang Machine Tool and Dalian Machine Tool). ).

In terms of core technology research and development, my country's machine tool companies often only stay at the system integration level. Most of the high-end core components rely on imports, and the machine tool structure design is similar. Even if the best functional components are used to piece together, they lack competitiveness and profit margins.

In terms of inheritance and innovation, it is not only difficult for state-owned enterprises to iterate in my country’s machine tool industry. Managers are transferred or promoted for one or two terms. Private enterprises often face the problem of no one to succeed, and most of the bosses send their children to study. Financial management, I feel that doing this business is too hard, and I can't get a higher social status.

In terms of talent training, most of the front-line workers are migrant workers. Although they have gained a certain amount of practical experience in actual work, they lack the ability to investigate the bottom line, creatively summarize and improve when they encounter problems, and they can only helplessly. Copy and copy. However, college students or graduate students who work in equipment companies receive basically exam-style training when they study in school, lacking hands-on ability and the ability to integrate theory with practice, and very few college students or graduate students are willing to start from front-line work. In addition, the promotion mechanism of state-owned enterprises tends to be more towards academic qualifications than abilities. Some people with no practical experience are referred to management positions, and the quality of the products produced can be imagined.

The gap between 2/78 points and 95 points

In 2019, the scale of the domestic CNC machine tool industry was about 327 billion yuan, accounting for 31.5% of the global share. China has become the world's largest consumer of CNC machine tools. Facing the public opinion that Swiss machine tools are about to "cut off", industry insiders commented that the current domestic machine tool level is sufficient for military use. If the Swiss top machine tool level is 95 points, then we have reached about 78 points.

However, looking at the US's series of suppression policies against China, from 5G to chips, to lithography machines, and to the current machine tools, all of them reflect a problem, that is, the more high-end process technology, the less Chinese technology companies lack. . And if we want to break the "stuck neck" restriction, we can't just start with one or two technologies, but need to reshape a scientific industrial innovation system, which is also a very challenging problem for our country.

From the basic research of the university to the final product is an insurmountable gap. Many countries try to bridge this gap by establishing Technology Innovation Centers. Well-known technological innovation centers include Fraunhofer Institute in Germany, IMEC (Microelectronics Center) in Belgium, Industrial Research Institute (ITRI) in Taiwan, AIST in Japan, ASTAR in Singapore, and ASTRI in Hong Kong. These technological innovation centers promote the technological maturity of prototypes to a new level by connecting the needs of enterprises with the basic technology of universities, allowing enterprises to complete the last mile of productization.

Swiss manufacturing-related technological innovation centers include EMPA and INSPIRE, the latter located next to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. INSPIRE has more than 70 employees and an annual operating cost of 11 million Swiss francs. The six research directions involved include materials, manufacturing processes, 3D printing, machine tool design, industry 4.0, and product testing and evaluation. There are six matching universities: Machine Tool and Manufacturing Research Institute (more than 50 researchers), Design, Materials and Manufacturing Research Institute, Power System and Control Research Institute, Robotics and Intelligent Manufacturing Research Institute, and Manufacturing Process Research Institute.

INSPIRE and ETH have a good reputation in the field of grinding. Many subsidiaries of the well-known United Grinding Technology company, such as STUDER, are their important business partners. Swiss core component companies (Schneeberger in the field of transmission components, Etel and Maxon in the field of servo/direct drive motors, Fisher, Step-tec and IBAG in the field of spindles, NUM in the field of CNC systems, etc.), OEMs (Mikron, GF, United Grinding, Willemin-Macodel, Fehlmann, Tornos, Studer, Starreg, etc.), and high-quality companies in the Swiss high-end manufacturing field (watches, medical equipment, precision parts, etc.) constitute the iron triangle of the Swiss machine tool industry ecology.

The government cultivates all kinds of talents needed by the industry through the dual system of vocational education, the triple system of applied science and technology universities and research universities, and the establishment of matching university research institutes and industrial research institutes (INSPIRE and EMPA) to integrate the original technology of universities Push it to the front line of the industry step by step, and complete the last mile of technology industrialization by setting up InnoSwiss (the application and management process is relatively simple, and the success rate is as high as 50%) similar industry funding projects.

In the era of planned economy, our country learned from the industrial innovation system established by the Soviet Union (competent department-ministerial enterprise-ministerial research institute-ministerial university/vocational school). After the reform and opening up, it basically disintegrated in the market economy environment. Unfortunately, we have not been able to continue to establish a new system. Under this circumstance, the government's attempts to promote industrial reform through some special projects (such as the 04 special projects) have extremely limited effects.

After long-term research and sorting, some scholars combined with my country's current reality and summed up the 10 basic conditions necessary for the success of a machine tool enterprise:

1) Market demand, especially emerging market demand, must be a prerequisite for enterprise development. China is the world's largest machine tool market, and emerging needs (such as mobile phone and battery manufacturing) are still emerging. This is a good market environment for enterprises.

2) Machine tools are a multi-technology industry that requires long-term accumulation. It has extremely high requirements for founders and product managers. This is also the positioning and mission of new engineering and dual education. 3) Only when companies create value for customers can they find their own living space. Identifying the problem, defining a good product, and providing high-quality services are the development paths of Swiss machine tool companies. At present, Chinese enterprises tend to overemphasize the scale and ignore the needs of customers.

4) The development of a good machine tool product requires an interdisciplinary and innovative team. Although state-owned enterprises can attract some relatively good talents, their rigid mechanism also restricts the performance of the team, and it is difficult for private enterprises to attract good talents. 5) The spirit of craftsmanship is the foundation of precision machine tool manufacturing and assembly. To cultivate corporate culture and craftsmanship through personal interest training and dual education is the way to success in Switzerland, Germany and Japan. China’s vocational and technical schools pay more attention to academic qualifications. Schools that can earnestly implement dual education, like Dongguan Technician College, are really rare.

6) It is very important to use scientific methods to systematically analyze and solve the problems in the product design process. Many of our corporate R&D personnel encounter problems when one is copycats, and the other is to use customers as white mice. It is difficult to make a fundamental breakthrough in this way. 7) Constant iteration and protracted warfare are essential for making a good machine tool product. The frequent transfer of cadres in state-owned enterprises is one of the main reasons why the Eighteen Arhats are in trouble. A good machine tool company even requires the efforts of two generations.

8) The scientific management method can not only stimulate the innovation ability of the cross team, but also ensure the efficient implementation of the project. 9) Many machine tool companies have fallen on the road to scale and diversification, forgetting that small and sophisticated is the key to a good machine tool enterprise. If we can do it well in a market as large as China, it will inevitably produce a certain scale effect. 10) Iteration is inseparable from continuous investment.

In general, if China wants to do a good job in its equipment, especially machine tool industry, it needs to work hard in two aspects: industrial ecology and industrial innovation system construction. From the perspective of industrial ecology, we must focus on cultivating our own C-end brand industry and create new high-end demand to lead the healthy development of the entire B-end industrial chain from chips, materials, core components, equipment to factories.

The semiconductor equipment industry in the United States has today benefited from the strong demand of the American chip industry; the Japanese machine tool and industrial robot industries have today also benefited from the strong demand of the Japanese and American automobile manufacturing industries; and the Swiss machine tool industry Today, we also benefit from the strong demand of the Swiss and European clocks, medical technology and precision parts industries. It is difficult to build a strong equipment and manufacturing industry chain (including chips/materials and core components) by relying on OEMs and foreign brands.

Innovation from industry

From a system perspective, in a market economy environment, one is the training of technicians and technicians in the dual system model, as well as the training of engineers and entrepreneurs in the new engineering education model; the other is the construction of an industrial innovation platform.

Dongguan Technician College has explored a dual-system talent training model with Chinese industrial characteristics, and universities such as Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Southern University of Science and Technology are also exploring innovative talent training under the new engineering model. Both Fraunhofer in Germany and INSPIRE in Switzerland have made important contributions to the development of the machine tool industry in Germany and Switzerland. But even if such research institutes are successfully transplanted to China, it will be difficult to develop China's machine tool industry. Because we need a more effective and innovative mechanism to integrate the needs and resources of universities, governments, industries, and entrepreneurs, and build a high-end equipment industry incubation platform similar to the Songshan Lake Robot Industry Base.

In short, there is still a long way to go to promote the transformation and upgrading of China's manufacturing industry. Whether it is chips or high-precision machine tools, if some Chinese companies still adhere to the idea of “buying is worse than buying, and renting is worse than buying”, they will eventually be eliminated by the times, and China’s manufacturing industry will always be controlled by others.