How domestic industrial robots counterattack

With the continuous deepening of industrial transformation and upgrading and demographic dividends weakening, industrial robots have become more and more widely used. The International Robot Federation survey found that from 2008 to 2011, China’s robot adoption rate (ie, the ratio of robots per 10,000 employees) increased by 210%. In 2012, the average growth rate of robotic enterprises in Shenzhen exceeded 30%, and the growth rate of individual companies even reached 200%. In the past two years, the state has issued relevant policies to support the development of the robot industry. Many provinces have established a robotics industry alliance. According to the current development trend, it is generally predicted by the international community that in 2014 China will become the world’s largest market demand for industrial robots. However, it is worth noting that China has not really formed its own brand and has a certain size of industrial robot industry. Compared with major developed countries, China's robotics industry has slow development, weak core technology, and low market share and added value. The reporter was informed that the current foreign-brand industrial robot products accounted for more than 90% of China's domestic market share. Mr. Chen, an R&D officer of an industrial robot manufacturing company in Shenyang, said: “The key components of our company’s robotic joints in the reducer are generally reliant on imports. This gives us at least a decade or two of advanced levels in the world as a whole. gap."

Zhao Jie, the team leader of the Robotics Technical Subject Group of the “12th Five-Year” National 863 Program, suggested that domestic robots could first break through the low-end products to promote large-scale applications, accumulate experience, and then send strength to the high-end market.

Industrial robots caused a manufacturing revolution In recent years, rising labor costs have forced many companies in the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta to relocate. In order to maintain profits, they had to move their manufacturing links to lower-central China's central and western regions and Southeast Asia. The country has even moved to African countries where the cost of labor is low enough to not be lower. The once "world factory" is facing a difficult transition. However, Imagine that the headquarter economy and branding process will be available overnight for most ordinary manufacturing companies. "Made in China" will go from here?

At the same time, another revolution in the manufacturing industry is quietly taking place in the world. The same migration theme is the reverse of the migration. An American expert put forward this year: "When we combine artificial intelligence, robotics, and digital manufacturing technologies, a manufacturing revolution will take place. It will enable American entrepreneurs to start factories and build a variety of This way, how can China compete with us? The United States is destined to regain leadership in the manufacturing industry, and it will soon be China’s concern to worry about it.” This American scholar puts forward three major declarations of war on Chinese manufacturing. The combination of technology and manufacturing patterns can be called manufacturing intelligence, that is, intelligent manufacturing.

Industrial robots are modern intelligent devices integrating mechanical, electronic, control, computer, sensors, artificial intelligence and other multi-disciplinary advanced technologies. They will soon become high-tech and high-efficiency equipment that cannot be replaced by the manufacturing industry. For more than a decade, the demand for global industrial robots has expanded rapidly.

According to the statistics of the International Robot Federation (IFR), from 2002 to 2012, the annual growth rate of newly installed industrial robots is about 9%. Among them, there was a surge in demand in 2010 and 2011. In 2012, the global industrial robot production and sales reached 160,000 units.

It is estimated that by 2025, 5%-15% of manufacturing workers will be replaced by industrial robots. The average annual growth rate of global installed capacity is 25%-30%, which is higher than the growth rate of the past 20 years but lower than 2011. Year and 2012 growth rates.

The data shows that the demand for industrial robots in China has grown rapidly: In 1999-2008, the installed capacity increased at an annual rate of more than 20%. In 2010, China’s inventory was 52,290 units, and in 2011, it was 74,317 units, achieving an annual growth of 42%. . At present, the actual holding capacity should have exceeded 100,000 units. From 2008 to 2012, the average annual installed capacity of industrial robots in China is about 15,000 units. Even in the global economic recession in 2009, sales volume has been increasing in contrarian conditions. In 2010, the installed capacity was 14,978 units, in 2011, 22,027 units and in 2012, 24,800 units.

The world’s largest demand for industrial robots is in the automotive industry, accounting for 27.27%; the electronics manufacturing industry accounts for 22.82%, which is of great relevance to technological breakthroughs in consumer electronics in recent years; followed by the rubber and plastics industry. Metal products accounted for 8.71% and 3.62%, respectively.

According to IFR's forecast, by 2014, China will become the world's largest demanding country for industrial robots, with a demand of 32,000 units, accounting for 17% of global sales.

At present, most domestic companies are mostly concerned about how to make the company bigger. They are at the scale of several thousand people and tens of thousands of people. Foreign companies are more pursuing technology leadership and making their products indispensable in the manufacture of other products. Chinese manufacturing companies mainly rely on price and quantity to win and lack core technologies. With the increase in labor, raw materials and other costs, the profits of manufacturing companies will become thinner and thinner. Looking at the world, the third industrial revolution centered on “digital intelligent manufacturing” is coming. The protagonist of this revolution is the large-scale popularization and application of artificial intelligence represented by industrial robots.